Indian news round-up

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly and wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya have been served with notices for showing dissent by the ICC match referee Barry Jarman during the fourth one-day international between India and Zimbabwe played in Kanpur on Monday which the former won by nine wickets. Both Ganguly and Dahiya showed their displeasure to decisions when umpire CK Sathe turned down leg before appeals against Zimbabwean player Mluleki Nkala.

The players have been issued notices under three clauses (C-2, C-3 and C-4) dealing with bringing the game to disrepute, showing dissent to the umpire's decision and intimidating the umpire after Ganguly and Dahiya demonstrated before the umpire. The penalties on the two players will be announced by Jarman in Rajkot on Tuesday.

After an allround performance by the Prince of Calcutta which steered the Indians to victory, Sourav Ganguly said he was happy with the win against Zimbabwe at Kanpur which wrapped up the series 3-1, making the tie at Rajkot on December 14 inconsequential. Ganguly was declared man-of-the-match for his five wicket haul and an unbeaten 71. Talking at the post match conference, Ganguly said "We bowled well despite the fact that the bounce was a bit low. Our bowlers did a very good job. They bowled an accurate line and kept the Zimbabwean batsmen in check."

Commenting on his spell, Ganguly said "I wanted to give more opportunities to youngsters. I bowled a few overs in earlier matches, but after today's performance I feel I should bowl more often." He added that "It was a good batting track but our bowlers did not allow the Zimbabweans to score freely, which was a good job on our part. Agarkar no doubt did a superb job, giving India the breakthrough after a slow but steady start by Zimbabwe." Ganguly made special mention about Agarkar saying "He was the mainstay of India's series win."

On the victory, Ganguly said "We were a bit worried after the Jodhpur defeat because Zimbabwe are a dangerous one-day side and are able to make a comeback at any stage," he said, adding, "coach John Wright did a fine job in boosting the team's morale after Jodhpur." The southpaw also expressed confidence of winning the Rajkot tie. He said "We are 3-1 up and I don't feel that there will be any problem in winning the tie," he said, adding, "We are not going to take this match lightly."

Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak said he was disappointed with his side's performance and said "Everything went wrong. We bowled badly. We were outclassed by the Indians."

A three-member delegation of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) which was to have landed in India to try and persuade the Indian government to review its stand on sending the team to Pakistan has postponed its visit. ACC chief Saber Hossain Chowdhury said "We have not given up the hope to meet Indian federal ministers. The ACC is keen to make them understand the greater interest of Asian cricket and its development across the region."

Apart from discussing the bilateral tour, Chowdhury said other schedules such as the Asian Test Championship and the Asia Cup were also important topics. The other two members of the delegation are Thilanga Sumathipala of Sri Lanka and Tunku Imran of Malaysia.

Tamil Nadu allrounder Robin Singh will lead the South Zone team for the Deodhar Trophy tournament to be played at Kanpur and Lucknow from Dec 15 to 21. Hyderabad's VVS Laxman will be his deputy. The South Zone selection committee, comprising of TA Sekhar, V Chamundeswara Nath, Arshad Ayub, Hemant Angle, Brijesh Patel, APM Gopalakrishnan and TNCA secretary Ashok Kumbhat met in Chennai to choose the side.

The team: Robin Singh (capt, TN), VVS Laxman (v.capt, Hyderabad), S Ramesh, S Sharath, T Kumaran, S Mahesh, WD Balaji Rao, (all TN), J Arun Kumar, Vijay Bharadwaj, D Ganesh (all Karnataka), NP Singh, SL Venkatapathy Raju (both Hyderabad), Amit Pathak, Y Venugopal Rao, LN Prasad Reddy (all Andhra), Sreekumar Nair (Kerala). Standbyes: Reuban Paul (TN), N Madhukar (Andhra), Tanveer Jabbar (Goa), Avinash Aware (Goa) and Vanka Pratap (Hyderabad). The manager of the side will be Hemant Angle.