Indian news round-up

The former President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) IS Bindra is to appear before the Board's Disciplinary Committee in Chennai on January 18 to explain his alleged criticism of the apex cricket body in the country.

Speaking to Press Trust of India (PTI) in Chandigarh on Thursday, Bindra said "certainly Pandove and I will appear before the committee and give our reply in addition to the written one which had been sent earlier."

Bindra said that he and the PCA secretary MP Pandove had been asked to appear before the committee after the board executive committee expressed its dissatisfaction with their written replies to the show cause notice served on them some time ago.

The secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), JY Lele denied on Thursday that the BCCI had pulled out of the tri nation tourney in Malaysia because Pakistan was scheduled to take part in it. He added that time constraint was the reason why India pulled out.

Speaking to Gulf News, Lele said "We refused the invitation from the Malaysian Cricket Association not because Pakistan is one of the opponents but because of time constraints." He affirmed that "the invitation from the Malaysian Cricket Board sought our team's availability to participate in a tournament this month-end and we wrote back to them saying we will not be available."

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Cricket Board president Tunku Imran confirmed Lele's views, saying "we sent individual invitations to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is up to the countries to accept our invitation as our objective was merely to promote cricket in our country."

The Duleep Trophy match featuring West Zone and East Zone, which was to be played in Mumbai from February 1 to 4, has been shifted and is to be held at Rajkot.

The executive secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sharad Diwadkar said that the match was shifted since the Wankhede Stadium has to be readied for the first India-Australia Test match to be held at the same venue in the third week of February.

This is the third Duleep venue to be changed this year. Earlier, the West Zone-Central Zone match was shifted from Kanpur to Meerut but due to lack of security for the players, it was again shifted to Nagpur while the West Zone-South Zone tie was shifted from Ahmedabad to Surat.

Former Indian cricketer VB Chandrasekhar announced at a press conference in Chennai on Friday that the VB Cricket Academy is to launch its residential coaching complex ` The Nest' at Pudupakkam in the suburbs of the city on January 7.

Speaking to the press at the Taj Connemera hotel, Chandrashekar said "it is just an added feature to the existing features of the academy." He added "the idea of the residential complex came about due to the shortcomings in the match practice for the lads in the academy." Chandrashekar hoped that the major step that he was taking would succeed.

The complex comprises of a full fledged turf ground with nine types of wickets prepared with different types of grasses and a dormitory equipped to house 25 trainees every week end and for longer periods during summer. The other features include an indoor coaching centre, a library, a gym and transportation facilities for the trainees. Handers is ably assisted by 10 other coaches including the former Tamil Nadu and South Zone cricketer SVS Mani, J Ramdoss, K Srinath and others. The VB Cricket Academy was launched in 1997 at the Vivekananda College grounds and was subsequently shifted to the Guru Nanak College wherein certain other facilities were added for the benefit of the trainees.

Doordarshan has made arrangements for live telecast of the India-Australia Test matches during the latter's forthcoming tour of India, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Prasar Bharati, Rajiv Ratan Shah, said in Panaji on Thursday.

The commentary of the matches would be in English and the Broadcasting Corporation of India (Prasar Bharati) was trying to enlist the services of expert commentators like Ravi Shastri, Ian Chappell and Tony Greig, Shah told a meeting of Goa cable operators.