Indian news round-up

* BCCI watchdog Madhavan arrives at Goa

K Madhavan, enquiry commissioner of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) arrived at Goa on Wednesday to look into allegations of irregularities in the printing and distribution of tickets for the final One-Dayer between Australia and India that was played on 6th April. The One- Dayer saw serious clashes between police and spectators as many people with original tickets were not allowed entry to the stadium.

The superintendent of police at South Goa, ID Shukla, has been in charge of heading the investigation thus far. Madhavan called on Shukla and offered the services of the BCCI to the police in the hope that the investigations could be speeded up.

In connection to this case, the Goa police have already made five arrests, including the treasurer of the Goa Cricket Association Rama Shankardas and ticket contractor Chinmay Fallari. The accused were presented before a court and remanded to police custody. Also accused of forgery and cheating in the same case are Fallari's brother Devdatt Fallari, his associate hailing from Tamil Nadu, Jayarajan Ramaswamy, and Gangaram V Bhise.

Shukla further added that over 70 people had been interrogated and that investigations were still going on.

* Umpires named for Ranji Trophy final

It is not often that two lesser teams like Baroda and Railways clash for the final of the Ranji Trophy. This year, the two will meet for the title at the Gujarat State Fertiliser Corporation Ground between the 19th and the 23rd of April. The umpires for the clash were named today by Sharad Diwadkar, the Executive Secretary of the Board. Shavir Tarapore, former leg spinner from Karnataka who recently umpired an Australia - India One-Dayer and Jasbir Singh of Punjab are the two standing umpires for the match. Former Delhi all-rounder Rakesh Shukla was named as the match referee for the game.

* Trainees for West Zone academy named

The Zonal committees proposed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) finally seem to be taking shape. The Mumbai Cricket Association today announced a list of twenty boys who would proceed to the West Zone academy, starting at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The list of twenty includes five from Mumbai. Training is expected to commence on the 20th of April.

The head coach for the academy is former Indian Test cricketer Nari Contractor. The three coaches who will also be part of the academy are former stumper Kiran More, former opening batsman Lalchand Rajput and Hemant Kanitkar.

Full list of players: Sahil Kukreja, Paul Valthaty, Vinit Indulkar, Arif Sunsara and Gautam Yadav (all from Mumbai), Vimal Joshi, Rakesh Solanki, Padnabuy Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan and Hardik Parmar (all from Baroda), Parthiv Patel, Swapnil Patel, Siddharth Trivedi and Timil Patel (all from Gujarat Cricket Association), Kiran Adhav, Yogesh Takwale and Manoj Palkhade (all from Maharashtra and Nikhil Rathod and Uday Karavadra (both from Saurashtra).

Standbyes: Pradyush Mayekar and Sangram Bagul (both from Mumbai), Deep Trivedi of Gujarat, Bhushan Chauhan of Saurashtra and Rohan Dharvat of Maharashtra.