Indian news round-up

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was full of praise for the debutant left arm pacer Zaheer Khan after India's victory over hosts Kenya in the ICC KnockOut Tournament in Nairobi on Tuesday.

Ganguly said that Zaheer was excellent but he bowled too short in his first spell, adding that considering he was playing his first game, it was a fine debut. The skipper believed that the Indians could have bowled better but he was full of confidence for the key clash against Australia which he called 'a difficult opposition'.

Ganguly also had a word of praise for the comeback man, Vinod Kambli. "Kambli had a great return in the middle and started playing shots from the word go", he said. On his own form, Ganguly said he had no problem in adjusting even though the conditions were different.

The resumption of the King Commission inquiry probing into the matchfixing scandal in South Africa has been put off to November as the officials were waiting for some information from India. This was stated by the state prosecutor Shamila Batohi in Cape Town on Tuesday.

"As a result of our deliberations in India it has necessitated us taking steps to acquire certain documentation from India. We really don't know how long it will take," said Batohi who reaffirmed that talks with Indian police officials on her recent visit to New Delhi were fruitful.

On the delay, Batohi said "the postponement from October 2 to early November would allow time for the documents to arrive from India and enable investigators to continue their work. We are on a good wicket. We want to close our innings and make recommendations by the end of November or early December."

The Statesman on Wednesday reported that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to withhold the awarding of any international matches to the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) till the issues raised by the Association against the Board are resolved.

The newspaper said that the Board members were unhappy with the way the PCA president IS Bindra has been making allegations against the BCCI without explaining his views in the Annual Generalbody Meeting. The paper added that 20 out of 30 Board members endorsed the decision during the recently held AGM in Chennai.

The paper also reported that the members voted for a coordination committee to handle the important affairs of the BCCI including its stand on dealing with the different associations. The members of the committee are: Mr AC Muthiah, Mr JY Lele, Mr Kishore Rungta, Mr Jyoti Bajpai, Mr Raj Singh Dungarpur, Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya and Mr Kamal Morarka.

Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) has named C Hemanth Kumar to lead the Tamil Nadu Under-25 team for their forthcoming match against Hyderabad in the KSCA Coca Cola Tournament. The match is slated to be played from October 5 to 7 in Bangalore.

Tamil Nadu Squad: C Hemanth Kumar (captain), R John, D Dhandapani, N Lokesh, R Sathish, S Badrinath, DS Doss, P Raju, R Ramkumar, K Velmurugan, K Veeranan, KN Riaz, P Muthupandian, J Hariesh. Coach: T Doraiappan.