Indian news round-up

Interim coach Anshuman Gaekwad is likely to be replaced by New Zealand's John Wright as the next coach of the Indian side. Sources close to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said "The board has more or less decided to appoint New Zealand's John Wright as the coach of the team, beginning with the one-off Test against Bangladesh at Dhaka on November 10," quotes PTI on Sunday.

The sources added that Gaekwad was not too keen to be the assistant coach of the team even if an offer is made to him by the board. BCCI chief AC Muthiah is on record denying such an offer was made to Gaekwad. The decision on Wright has been almost finalised as he has the support of some senior players of the side. An announcement to this effect has been delayed because of an new entrant into the fray namely former Australian captain Greg Chappell, who has shown interest after another Aussie Geoff Marsh pulled out due to personal reasons.

An age scandal has rocked the game in Assam. The 26 players shortlisted for the under-19 Assam team for the Cooch Behar Trophy have been declared overage by the doctors of the Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH). The players include Palash Jyoti Das and Mrigen Talukdar, who represented India during the victorious under-15 ACC cricket tournament in Malaysia in June-July this year.

Many cricket associations were suspicious towards the Assam side which always performed well at the junior level. With the BCCI issuing strict guidelines on the age issue, it has now been discovered that 21 of the 26 players had been given fake age certificates. ACA sources said "The ACA sent all the 26 to the GMCH on Thursday and according to the medical report, in the whole batch, only five players were found to be under 19 years of age," quotes PTI.

According to GMCH sources, some of the cricketers, who played last year in the under-15 age group, were found to be over 20 years of age. The tests were performed on the basis of physical examinations conducted in the forensic medicine department of the GMCH where x-rays were taken and the teeth of the players examined to determine the ages. The ACA has now called 39 more players for another camp. Assam play their first zonal match against Bihar on October 20.

BSK Yadav will lead the Hyderabad under-22 squad in the P Ramachandra Rao Trophy. Besides the 14 member team, five stand-byes have also been named. Hyderabad will take on Karnataka in their first match at Bangalore from October 19 to 21.

The squad: BSK Yadav (Captain), Anirudh Singh, NA Yadav, M Ghouse, IS Reddy, D Amresh Kumar, Kapil Dev, TS Suman, JAS Laxman Khaleel, V Ramakrishna, R Chander, S Ashish, Kesari Srikkanth, Sunil Singh. Stand Byes: Nagaraju, Kapil Reddy, A Agarwal, AV Makhija, SY Pasha.