Indian news round-up

The former president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Raj Singh Dungarpur said he expects that the Indian Government would give its clearance to India's proposed tour to Pakistan in December this year. Talking to Khaleej Times on Sunday, Dungarpur said the Indian government is thinking in terms of a favourable decision on the proposed tour of Pakistan. ``This is what I understand from the situation as an outsider," he added.

Dungarpur added "The Indian cricket board has always enjoyed excellent relations with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and we are keen to tour Pakistan." The NCA committee chairman however said "the final decision rests with the government and the board officials are the best men to answer this question."

On the issue of the appointment of a foreign coach, Dungarpur said "Three of the top Indian players, skipper Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, play county cricket in England and the idea basically emanated from them. They played under foreign coaches in England and saw some positive things, so the board is going ahead with the idea." He added "We have already made up our mind. The selection panel is to finalise the candidate before October 31 so that the new coach could take over by November 15 ahead of the first Test against Zimbabwe on November 18,'' he said.

Former South African superstar Barry Richards has expressed concern over the impact that the match-fixing scandal would have in the long run. Richards, who is the president of the Federation of International Cricketers' Association (FICA) said if the players and administrators do not stamp it out in time, the game's integrity will suffer irreparable damage. He urged cricketers and administrators to realise the implications of the match-fixing charges and save the `gentleman's game' from disrepute.

Talking to Gulf News on Sunday, the former South African opener said "There are many players who do not realise the impact it has created on the game. Cricket has been played for the last 100-odd years and if it has to go on the same way, the integrity of the game has to be protected."

Richards warned that "If you start messing up with the game, people will start losing interest and it won't take long for spectators to lose interest and sponsors to move away from it with television coverage going down."

The organisers of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announced in Sharjah on Sunday that Hong Kong will take on Malaysia in the opening match of the one-day cricket tournament for Asia's non-Test playing nations next month.

Mazhar Khan, one of the organisers said "Eight teams will take part in the ACC Trophy to be held in Dubai and Sharjah from November 15-24 with the final slated to be held in Sharjah on November 24." He added that cricket was becoming very popular outside the Indian sub-continent and they hoped to rope in more Asian teams in future. The top two teams in the competition will join Asia's big four - Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh - in the Asia Cup to be hosted by Pakistan next year.

In a surprise move, former Indian offspinner Nikhil Chopra, who was initially dropped, has now been included in the Delhi Ranji Trophy squad. He has been named in the side's game against Services to be played at the Ferozshah Kotla grounds.

The team: Vijay Dahiya (captain-WK), Rahul Sanghvi (vice captain), Aakash Chopra, Ashu Dani, Nikhil Chopra, Pankaj Joshi, Mithun Manhas, Virender Sehwag, Devender Sharma (WK), Amit Bhandari, Ashish Nehra, Robin Singh Jr, Pradeep Chawla, Amit Suman, Harender Chaudhary, Vishal Sharma.