Obituary

Former President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Member of Parliament Madhavrao Scindia died in a place crash at Mainpur, near Kanpur in Central Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. He was 56 and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. Scindia was closely related to cricket in the country and served as the President of the BCCI from 1990-91 to 1992-93. He was also the president of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association. The BCCI in 1993-94 had instituted the Madhavrao Scindia Trophy, for the match played between the winners of the Vijay Merchant (Under-16) Trophy and the Rest of India Under-16. This three-day match is played on the same lines of the Irani Trophy.

South Africa in Zimbabwe

South Africa completed a clean sweep of the one-day series when they beat hosts Zimbabwe by 6 wickets in the third and final match at Harare yesterday. Batting first the home team could only muster 184-6 in their 50 overs, which the visiting team began to rattle up in flamboyant style before a couple of controversial umpiring decisions put a check on the scoring rate. The visitors however were comfortable winners with 9 overs to spare.

India in South Africa

A confident Indian team goes into their first assignment of the tour when they take on the Nicky Oppenheimer XI at Randjesfontein today. The traditional South African tour opener is to be played at famous mining family's private ground and is traditionally more a social gathering than a cricket match. The two teams will be selected from
India: S. Ganguly (Capt), S.S. Das, R. Dravid, S.R. Tendulkar, Yuveraj Singh, R.S. Sodhi, V. Sehwag, J. Martin, J. Srinath, V. Prasad, A. Agarkar, Harvinder Singh, A. Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Deep Dasgupta.
Nicky Oppenheimer XI: Jonathan Oppenheimer (Capt), Jacques Rudolph, Graeme Smith, Dale Benkenstein, Pieter Koortzen, Loots Bosman, Gulam Bodi, Kruger van Wyk, Garnett Kruger, Mornantau Hayward, Albie Morkel.

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Meanwhile the third team, Kenya, in the forthcoming tri series in South Africa, began their tour in style with an emphatic 95 run victory over a South African Country Districts XI in Pietersburg on Sunday.
Opener Kennedy Otieno carried his bat for an unbeaten 156 (in 139 balls), which enabled his team reach 312 for five off their 50 overs.
The visitors then bowled out the home side for 217. Steve Tikolo and Brijlal Patel with three wickets each were the main wicket-takers.

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Earlier, the Kenyan Cricket Association has selected a squad of 14 players for the tri nation tournament in South Africa.
The squad: Maurice Odumbe (Captain), Steve Tikolo (V. Captain), Ravindu Shah, Kennedy Otieno, David Otieno, Collins Otieno, Peter Ochieng, Martin Suji, Tony Suji, S. Gupta, Joseph Angara and Brijal Patel.

BCCI AGM News

Sunil Gavaskar, who had resigned for the National Cricket Academy (NCA) earlier this year due to some differences with NCA chairman & former BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur, has taken over the reigns of the NCA from Dungarpur after the latter resigned. Dungarpur's resignation came following the election of Jagmohan Dalmiya as President of the BCCI. Dungarpur and Dalmiya have been waging a war of words for a while now.

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Meanwhile, the second day of the BCCI's Annual General Body Meeting saw the current selection committee members being retained with the exception of TA Shekar, a close Muthiah confidant. He has been replaced by former Test off-spinner Shivlal Yadav from Hyderabad.

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The Board has accepted in principle, the proposal of 'Gradation Payment' to the National cricketers, although certain "specific details", after being reviewed by the Working Committee, would be placed before a Special General meeting for approval.

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A decision has been taken to recognise the three newly formed States of Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Chhatisgarh before March next year. Meanwhile, the Board will constitute a committee to conduct of domestic cricket in Bihar and Jharkhand during the 2001-2002 season.

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The Board also moved to remove the suspension on the Goa Cricket Association (GCA), so that cricket in the region should not suffer. However, the show cause served earlier on the GCA has not been withdrawn and the inquiry into the ticket scam will proceed. Interestingly the president of the GCA, Dayanand Narvekar, who is involved in the ticket scam, is now a newly elected member of the BCCI's technical committee.

Miscellaneous

Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh is reportedly on medication for blood-thinning after more problems surfaced following an injury he suffered in England a couple of months ago. Reports claimed that Waugh was undergoing treatment for a potentially dangerous condition called deep vein thrombosis (DVT) following the development of a blood clot in his lower left leg. His blood was being thinned as part of the treatment to get in on the field as early as possible. Australia are to host New Zealand in November.

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New Zealand will be the third team to compete along with Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the April 2002 edition of the Sharjah tournament. A fourth team may also be invited to take part. The tournament is scheduled to take place between 10-19 April next year. The sides will be playing for a US$ 250,000 prize money and CBFS would increase it if a fourth team agrees to take part.

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The sponsorship of the Sri Lanka cricket team will come up for review from October 1 after the three-year contract with Singer (Sri Lanka) Ltd expired.
Singer has been the sponsors of Sri Lanka cricket since 1995 and has also completed a second three-year term of sponsorship of the national team.
However, due the contact the BCCSL has with WSG Nimbus, the television company who have the rights to televise all international matches played in Sri Lanka, does not allow the former to negotiate any sponsorship deals directly, as it has to be done by WSG Nimbus only.
Meanwhile Singer has declared its intension to renew its contract as the team sponsor.

Miscellaneous

Zimbabwe vs South Africa (3rd ODI)
At Harare
Toss: Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe:184-6 in 50 overs (A Campbell 40, S Carlisle 51, DD Ebrahim 41; C Henderson 2-34)
South Africa: 188-4 in 41overs (HH Gibbs 39, N McKenzie 69 not out, JL Ontong 32; M Nkala 2-46)
Result:South Africa won by 6 wickets.
Man of the match:ND McKenzie (SA)
Man of the series: HH Gibbs (SA)

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