Indian news round-up

Three-member ICC team to discuss CBI report in India: The International Cricket Council's (ICC) three-member team is in India to hold talks with officials of the CBI to discuss the match-fixing and betting report made public last month. The report, apart from naming five Indians has named for ten foreign players.

At the end of the meeting with the three-member ICC team, comprising Martin Hawkins, Alan Peacock and Robert Smanney, a CBI official said "It was a routine meeting about the investigations into the case." Hawkins said that they were here in connection with the match-fixing case but refused to give more details. He said "We are here to meet the investigators and people who could throw more light on the entire gamut of match-fixing in the game."

The team, which also wanted to meet former Indian allrounder Manoj Prabhakar, was in for a disappointment for Prabhakar refused to meet them. The members wanted to question the Delhi player for the CBI report has it that he is the player who introduced some foreign players to the bookie Mukesh Gupta. When contacted by PTI, Prabhakar said "they (ICC team) telephoned me but I have turned down their request and told them to meet me along with Indian Cricket Board officials," adding "I am first answerable to BCCI and not ICC."

BCCI vice-president Kamal Morarka who is one of the disciplinary committee members has opined that he was against any penalty being imposed on the players for their alleged role in match-fixing and nexus with the bookies. Talking to PTI from Mumbai a day before the crucial meeting in Chennai to decide the punishment on players, Morarka said that before deciding the penalty for any erring player, the committee must weigh the fact that the those punished would have recourse to legal remedy if it was disproportionate. He added "The board owes it to itself to see that there is fairness in its actions."

Morarka, one of the board members advocating leniency towards the players said "Where is the need for us to give severe punishment based only on suspicion while the other boards have let off their players with milder sentences." He also clarified that he was not defending former Indian captain Ajay Jadeja, contrary to the reports in the media.

The 9th Dinesh Baruah Memorial cricket tournament started on Tuesday at the Latasil field in Guwahati with the Guwahati Cricket Coaching Centre taking on Latasil Cricket Coaching Centre. The top ten local teams are participating in the competition. The preliminary rounds of the tournament will be played on knock-out basis while the semi-finals will be on league basis. The top two teams in the league will contest the final.

The other teams participating in the tournament are Riverrine Club, NF Railway Coaching Centre, Ankurjyoti club, New Star Club, Ex Ankur, Guwahati Town Club, Santipur AC and City Cricket Coaching Centre.

The Goa under-16 team for the Vijay Merchant Trophy South Zone league match against Karnataka will be led by Sachin Shetty. The match will be played in Bangalore from Dec 7-9.

The team: Sachin Shetty (capt), Sher Bahudur Yadav (v.capt), Varun Kolambkar, Altaf Zamadhar, Sandeep Sharma, Anup Kolambkar, Sumit Naik, Shishir Divakar, Timraj M, Kiran Naik, Abilash Mudekar, Sandeep D Mello, Deepak Naik (WK), Sachin Sardesai, Santhosh Yadav and Alywn Fernandes. The team manager and coach are Sujay Netravadkar and Hazim Sayeed respectively.