Indian news round-up

Shamila Batohi, chief prosecutor for the King Commission of inquiry into South Africa's match-fixing scandal, is arriving in New Delhi on Saturday to make further headway in the ongoing investigations. According to Press Trust of India, Batohi is accompanied by police officer Jeff Edwards on the week long trip during which she will seek to meet people involved in the match-fixing probe in India, including bookmakers who allegedly made contact with Cronje.

Batohi will also press for access to the taped conversations between Cronje and Indian bookies now in custody of the Delhi police. The King Commission's media officer, John Bacon said in Durban that if the original tapes were unavailable, she would seek an authenticated transcript of the conversation."Batohi will interview possible witnesses to testify before the commission when the hearings resume in October", Bacon added.

CBI Director RK Raghavan indicated in New Delhi on Friday that his agency has made inroads in their enquiry into the allegedly murky deals made by the BCCI in connection with the allocation of television rights for cricket matches. "We have made significant progress on the telecast rights case," said Raghavan according to Press Trust of India.

The probe is a follow-up of the report presented by former BCCI president IS Bindra to the agency on May 15 in which he had charged that the profits accruing to officials from these deals were abnormally high. The CBI were reportedly inspecting Doordarshan files in an effort to corroborrate Bindra's charges of irregularities in the allocation of TV rights and discover whether a particular firm had benefited by the deals.

It was another frustrating day of inactivity for Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly in the PPP Healthcare County Championship Division One on Friday. The third day's play between Lancashire and Surrey was washed out at Old Trafford with Surrey having made 297/9 in reply to Lancashire's first innings total of 324, in which Sourav Ganguly's contribution was 54.

At Grace Road, both the second and third days of Kent's game against Leicestershire have been wiped out by rain. Kent had made 228/8 on the first day, Dravid top scoring with 77. Anil Kumble is sitting out of this game. The three Indians are expected back in Madras on September 20 to attend the final stages of the conditioning camp for the forthcoming ICC knockout tourney in Nairobi.