Indian news round-up

Premier action oriented TV and film channel, AXN has instituted a best performance award in the Ranji Trophy this season. The award will be called as the AXN Action cricketer-of-the-year award and carries a cash prize of Rs four lakhs, while four other contenders will receive Rs. one lakh each.

A press release from the company states that the rating and scoring for the award will be on par with the international cricket awards. The release adds that players who have not represented the country in Tests and one-dayers till the start of the season will be considered for the award.

Mumbai's vice-captain Amol Muzumdar was fined 50 per cent of his match fees by match referee RS Rathore for showing dissent after being adjudged caught by VVS Laxman off Murali Kartik on the final day of the Irani Trophy match played at the Wankhede stadium on Tuesday.

Muzumdar expressed his unhappiness towards umpire AV Jayaprakash on the decision, indicating that the ball had not touched the bat and refused to leave the crease. The match referee found this act to be dissent by the stylish Mumbai player and fined Muzumdar 50 per cent of his match fees.

Right arm medium pacer Nitin Aggarwal, who played an instrumental role in Haryana's outright victory over Delhi in the Cooch Behar game at Rohtak last week, is among the six new faces identified as probables for this year's Haryana Ranji squad. The other five newcomers to the side are Amit Mishra, Rajan Gupta, Joginder Sharma, Sumeet Sharma and Atul Shekhawat.

The selection committee comprising Rajinder Goel (chairman), Aman Kumar and Rajesh Bawa met at Rohtak on Tuesday after completion of selection trials at Maharaja Aggarsain Stadium to name the 20 probables. However the captain was not named by the selection committee. Most of the players who played Ranji Trophy last year have retained their places while the only notable omission has been that of veteran player Amarjeet Kaypee who announced his retirement last week.

The 20 probables: Parinder Sarma, Jitender Singh, Padamjit Sejrawat, Sanjay Dalal, Rajesh Puri, Jasvir Singh, Ajay Ratra, Pankaj Thakur, Vineet Jain, Feroze Ghyas, Sonu Sharma, Ishan Ganda, Satish Ohlan, Nitin Aggarwal, Amit Mishra, Rajan Gupta, Joginder Sharma, Pradeep Jain, Sumeet Sharma and Atul Sekhawat.

More than 2000 players from over 100 schools from all over the country will participate in the third Pepsi Youth (under-16) cricket series, starting on Wednesday in New Delhi. The tournament, which will be held in six cities - Bangalore, Chennai, Calcutta, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai, will be played on a knock-out basis and will culminate with the Inter-city tournament in Chennai in January next year.

Talking to reporters in the capital on Tuesday, former Indian coach and one of the supervisors for this tournament, Madanlal said that "The inter-city team will comprise the best talents from each city picked up by former Test players based on their performances in the tournament.'' Madanlal said The Delhi leg of the tournament would feature 16 teams including last year's champions Salwan Public School.

Each match will be 40 overs a side and the final will be played on October 25. The other supervisors are former Test offspinner Shivlal Yadav, India junior coach Roger Binny, former Indian captain K Srikkanth and wicketkeeper Saba Karim. In Delhi, the first venue, the tournament will be played from Oct 18 to 25.