Indian news round-up

A press release from the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) states that 17 players have been selected which includes Test stars Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad and Sunil Joshi, for this season's Karnataka Ranji Trophy team. The players are currently having nets at the M Chinnaswamy stadium under the watchful eyes of former Indian wicketkeeper and manager of the state side SMH Kirmani.

The squad: Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid (India Cements), Javagal Srinath (Indian Airlines), BKV Prasad (Canara Bank), Sunil Joshi (Canara Bank), J Arun Kumar (Indian Airlines), Sujith Somasunder (Chemplast), Vijay Bharadwaj (Canara Bank), S Shiraguppi (Canara Bank), Anand Yalvigi (KLN), Mansoor Ali Khan (Canara Bank), Dodda Ganesh (Indian Airlines), S Vadeyaraj (Vijaya Bank), B Akhil (State Bank of Mysore), VST Naidu (State Bank of Mysore), Mithun Beerala (IOC) and Rowland Barington (ITI Sports Club).

In a surprise move, Nikhil Haldipur who was expelled from the NCA, Abdul Masood and Wrichik Mazumdar have been dropped from the 26-member Bengal Ranji Trophy probables. The state selection committee consisting of National selector Ashok Malhotra, Pranab Roy, Subrata Porel and Snehasish Ganguly have initially picked 26 players for the coming season keeping in mind that there are enough bowlers in the side for nets. The training session will begin from October 17. Bengal will take on Assam at home in their opening encounter from November 19.

The 26 players are: Sourav Ganguly, Syed Saba Karim, Srikant Kalyani, Rohan Gavaskar, Devang Gandhi, Utpal Chatterjee, Sourasish Lahiri, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shib Sankar Pal, Subhamoy Das, Arindam Das, Alokendu Lahiri, Pitambar Dutta, Tirtha Roy, Sabir Ali, Sanjib Sanyal, Vishal Yadav, Sujoy Parui, Prabir Acharya, Deep Dasgupta, Sourav Seal, Sandeep Halder, Murtaza Lodhgar, Amitava Banerjee, Safi Ahmed and Arijit Basu.

The cricket ground of Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) at Gualpahari near Gurgaon will soon attain the status of a first class cricket ground. The Haryana Cricket Association (HCA) has decided to host the all important Ranji tie against Delhi at this venue. According to Ranbir Singh Mahindra, secretary HCA, the only Ranji match to be hosted by Haryana this season will be held at TERI from November 5 to 8.

Mahindra also disclosed that the stadium situated on the Gurgaon- Faridabad highway is equipped with all the facilities required for organising a first class match. Necessary permission for the use of new stadium has been granted to HCA by the Board of Control for Cricket in India after a committee visited the venue. Earlier, the matches were being organised at the Nehru stadium in Gurgaon which happened to be a multipurpose ground.

This season Haryana starts their Ranji campaign on October 30 with a match against Jammu and Kashmir at Udhampur to followed by the matches against Delhi (November 5 to 8 at Gurgaon), versus Punjab (on Nov 11 at Amritsar), versus Himachal Pradesh (on Nov 17 at Chamba) and against Services (on November 23 in Delhi).