Indian news round-up

The two Indians on the International Cricket Council's panel of umpires, former Indian captain S Venkataragavan and former Karnataka and South Zone all rounder AV Jayaprakash will officiate in the two India-Zimbabwe Tests scheduled to be played in November at Delhi and Nagpur next month.

Press Trust of India (PTI) reported that the decision to appoint the two umpires was taken during the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Umpires sub committee meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday under the chairmanship of CK Khanna.

The agency also reported that the committee during the meeting had decided to recommend to the BCCI that all national and Ranji level umpires should be covered under an insurance scheme.

The secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA), MP Pandove, on Friday announced that the former Test batsman Vikram Rathour will lead the State Ranji Team in the 2000-2001 season. Punjab are slated to take on Himachal Pradesh on October 30 at Una in their first league match.

The team: Vikram Rathour (captain), Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Ravneet Ricky, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Pankaj Dharmani, Harminder Jugnu, Harbhajan Singh, Sarandeep Singh, Gagan Deep Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Amrinder Singh, Navdeep Singh, Sandip Sanwal, Ankur Kakkar and Manish Sharma. Coach: Bhupinder Singh Sr.; Manager: Sushil Kapoor. Standbyes: Sanjay Kumar, Bharat Bhushan, Gaganinder Garry, Rakesh Rehni & Amit Uniyal.

The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) selection committee, headed by former India opening batsman Chetan Chauhan, while picking a 15-member squad for the 2000-2001 Ranji Trophy season, named the Indian wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya to lead Delhi with the former Indian left-arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi as his deputy.

Gautam Ghambir, who is with the National Cricket Academy, has been asked to play in the under-19 match against Punjab, which is considered crucial. Ghambir will be asked to join the senior team later in the season. Meanwhile, as for Nikhil Chopra, whose name has figured prominently in the match fixing allegations, a decision is yet to be taken. As of now, he does not figure in the team. Devender Sharma and Pradeep Chawla are the other two wicketkeepers in the squad.

The team: Vijay Dahiya (captain), Rahul Sanghvi (vice-captain), Akash Chopra, Ashu Dani, Pankaj Joshi, Mithun Minhas, Virender Sehwag, Devender Sharma, Amit Bhandari, Ashish Nehra, Robin Singh, Pradeep Chawla, Amit Suman, Harender Chaudhary and Vishal Sharma. Coach: Surender Khanna; Manager: Rajeev Vinayak.

The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association has named Anirudh Srikkanth as the captain of the State Under-14 team for the forthcoming South Zone Under-14 match against Goa to be played at Goa from November 1 to 3.

The team: Anirudh Srikkanth, Adithya Ganesh, RA Aravind, R Ashwin, T Ashok, KA Aashirith, DR Anbu Ezhil, VRS Guru Kedarnath, H Gopinath, P Hariraj, P Johnson, K Martin Sanjeev, S Rahul, B Sriram and D Vinay. Coach: S Ramesh.