Indian news round-up

Rest of India team to be named on Oct 9
The 2000-2001 Indian domestic season kicks off with the annual Irani Trophy fixture between the Rest of India Ranji champions Mumbai. The new selection committee of Chandu Borde, Madanlal, TA Sekhar, Ashok Malhotra and Sanjay Jagdale will meet in Mumbai on October 9 to pick the Rest of India squad. They will also select the Indian team for the tri-nation Champions Trophy tournament to be played in Sharjah from October 20. The five-day Irani Trophy match will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai from October 13-17.

India, along with Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are to participate in the tri-nation Coca Cola Trophy in Sharjah from Oct 20-29. Last year, the Rest of India side beat Karnataka by an innings and 60 runs.

The schedule for the day/night matches at Sharjah: Oct 20: India v Sri Lanka, Oct 21: Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka, Oct 22: India v Zimbabwe, Oct 25: Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka, Oct 26: India v Zimbabwe, Oct 27: India v Sri Lanka. Final: Oct 29.

BCCI extends invitations to Marsh, Wright
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has sent an invitation to former openers Australian Geoff Marsh and New Zealand's John Wright to be in India by the end of October. The BCCI which was to have taken decided on the national coach at its recently concluded AGM in Chennai deferred the decision. The invitations to Marsh and Wright indicates that the Board has rejected the candidature of the two other contenders for the post, former West Indian fast bowler Andy Roberts and former Australian batsman Dean Jones.

The board has retained interim coach Anshuman Gaekwad till November where India will play Bangladesh in that country's inaugural Test in Dhaka. Gaekwad replaced Kapil Dev as interim coach when the former resigned last month.

UP probables for Cooch Behar Trophy
The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association has announced a list of 31 probables for the Cooch-Behar Trophy in Kanpur on Sunday. The selection was made after the trials which were held at the Kamla Club ground in Kanpur from Sep 28-30.

The probables: Parvinder Singh (Meerut), Anshul Kapoor, Arun Sharma, Saurab Bhalla, Naveen Choudhary, Prashant Malviya, Sunil Upadhay, Utkarsh Chandra, Abbas Raza, Shailendra Tewari (all Lucknow), Alok Pandey, Subhash Dixit, Sumi Singh, Ranjan Jaiswal, Harjeet Singh, Sarfraz Ahmad, Ashraf Ali, Shyam Varshney, Anurag Tripathi, Gaurav Kumar, Prem Kumar, Manish Pandey, Ashan Imran, Faizan Khan (all Kanpur), Rahul Prasad (Ghaziabad), Abhishek Gupta (Agra), Vaibhav Parihar (Hrishikesh), Amit Pal (Allahabad), Sanjeev Kumar Mishra (Balia) and Dhananjai Singh (Pratapgarh).

Indian software company sponsors Australian team
Indian software giant, Pentasoft is sponsoring the Australian cricket team at the ICC KnockOut tournament in Kenya, an Australian Cricket Board (ACB) media release announced today. The deal gives Pentasoft branding on the playing and training apparel of the touring party for the duration of Australia's participation in the event. ACB Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed said "We are delighted that Pentasoft has agreed to sponsor the Australian team at the ICC KnockOut tournament in Kenya. The continued involvement of Pentasoft in cricket following its sponsorship of the Super Challenge 2000 is a recognition of the excellent value cricket represents to sponsors."

Pentasoft Chairman V Chandrasekaran in a statement said "We are extremely happy to once again be linking up with Australian cricket, this time through sponsorship of the team at the ICC KnockOut tournament. The event has global significance as it is the only one outside the World Cup that involves all the major cricket-playing countries. And as Pentasoft is a global company, the chance to sponsor the world champions at such a high profile tournament that will get widespread coverage is something we are only too happy to be undertaking."

Earlier Pentasoft had sponsored the Super Challenge 2000, the one-day international series between Australia and South Africa at the indoor Colonial Stadium in Melbourne in August. Australia take on the winners of the match between India and Kenya in their first match on Oct 7.