Indian news round-up

The loss of strike bowler Anil Kumble and the fact that the present lot of spinners have not been particularly impressive has led to Narendra Hirwani and Sairaj Bahutule, the long forgotten practioners of the art of legspin bowling, being summoned to the Indian team conditioning camp for the home series against Australia in Chennai.

According to agency reports, the Chairman of the BCCI selection committee, Chandu Borde and former Indian skipper S Venkataraghavan were unimpressed by the spin talent on view in Madras. Quoting Borde, AFP said "None of the spinners are giving air to the ball and are bowling very flat." Venkataraghavan said "I am not happy with the way our spinners are bowling. They are not willing to maintain a rhythm and bowl each ball differently. Our spinners were unable to turn the ball as much as Sachin Tendulkar did at the nets."

Speaking to AFP, Bahutule said "This is the best piece of news I have got for a long time now." He added "All I want to do is to go out there and work very hard. I am feeling very good about my bowling." On the other hand, Hirwani said "I may be 32 but I feel like 23." He added "I believe I can deliver if asked to prove myself."

Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on Monday that the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) had collected Rs 41.25 lakhs and forwarded it to the World Vision's relief efforts for the Gujarat Earthquake victims.

The ACB and the Australian cricketers made an appeal to the fans to donate money for the relief operations during the second final of the Carlton triangular one-day series between Australia and West Indies on Friday and the resulting contributions were given to World Vision.

Moreover, the relief material from Australia will be handed over to the World Vision India CEO, John Mathai at a press conference in Mumbai on February 14. This apart, the Australian skipper Steve Waugh will carry an autographed bat, which will be auctioned on ACB's website and the proceeds will go to World Vision.

Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on Monday that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) would not interrogate the Australian star batsman Mark Waugh, during his stay in India for the Australian cricket team's tour of India.

Quoting department sources, PTI said that they were not going to question Waugh as the agency sleuths had not gone into the alleged role of foreign players and their nexus with bookies. The source said that the Government had only asked the CBI to probe the role of Indian players, which was done and that the agency had not gone in depth on the role of foreign players.

The CBI in it's report had alleged the bookie Mukesh Gupta had paid 20,000 US dollars to Waugh to provide "information" about pitch, weather, team strategy and morale. During the CBI interrogation, Gupta had claimed that Mark Waugh was introduced to him by former Indian all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar during a six-a-side tournament in Hong Kong.

Right arm medium pacer from Assam Javed Zaman, who has been selected to play for the India A side against the Australians at Nagpur starting on February 17, was felicitated by an NGO Markazul Maarif at his residence in Guwahati on Monday. According to newspaper reports, the player who earlier toured with the Indian Under-19 to England in 1998 was sponsored by the Hojai based organisation.

The 26-year-old Zaman is the first cricketer from the state to represent the senior side against any visiting team. Zaman had represented the Indian Under-19 against Australia, England in England, against Malaysia in Malaysia and Hong Kong in Hong Kong in the 1993-94 season. He made his Ranji Trophy debut in 1993. In the national competition this season, Zaman has so far played four matches picking up six wickets at an average of 35.50 with a best of 4-39.

A division bench comprising Justice GB Patnaik and Justice UC Banerjee of the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking the monitoring of the on-going Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) probe into the match fixing scandal in cricket.

The petition was submitted in the Supreme Court by Sunita Godara, a well-known marathon runner, after a appeal to the Delhi High Court in this regard was held down. Godara's Health Fitness Trust had approached the High Court for monitoring of the probe by CBI, which in its interim report had indicted several cricketers including Mohd Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Manoj Prabhakar and Ajay Sharma.

Godara in her Special Leave Petition (SLP), had had sought a direction from the Supreme Court for monitoring of the math-fixing probe saying it was important to bring honesty into the game. But subsequently the Division Bench declined the request questioning the locus standi of the petitioner, Godara.