Indian news round-up

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced the names of the three beneficiaries for the Cricketers Benevolent Fund Series (CBFS).

United News of India (UNI) reported that former all rounder Rusi Surti, and former batsmen Dilip Sardesai and Navjot Singh Sidhu would be the three who would receive 35,000 dollars each during the Sharjah Cup Tri Nation tournament scheduled to be held in October.

Surti represented India in the sixties and in 26 Tests he scored 1263 runs at an average of 28.70 with nine half centuries with a highest score of 99. He also took 42 wickets with a best of 5 for 74. Sardesai who was Surti's contemporary, played in 30 Tests and scored 2001 runs at an average of 39.23 with five centuries, including two double hundreds.

At a time when the game and the rules are changing fast, it is important that umpires' seminars are held frequently. Having a forum where match officials can meet and exchange views on the subject is very important. Under the circumstances, it is encouraging to note that the 17th all India umpires' seminar will be held in Jamshedpur on September 9 and 10.

The seminar will feature the views of International and national umpires. International Cricket Council (ICC) panel umpires S Venkataraghavan, VK Ramaswamy, AK Bansal and AV Jayaprakash and other reputed umpires like Maninder Singh and Yashpal Sharma along with Amrit Mathur, Jasbir Singh and Shekar Gupta will be present on the occasion. Venkataraghavan, Jayaprakash and Ramaswamy will conduct the technical sessions during the seminar.

BCCI joint secretary Jyoti Bajpai, secretary JY Lele and former treasurer SK Nair will also attend the seminar.

Indian all rounder Robin Singh and southpaw Sridharan Sriram were named the captain and vice captain of the Tamil Nadu team which is to tour Sri Lanka from September 21 to October 1.

The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) named 20 probables for the ten day tour during which the team will play the revived Gopalan Trophy match. The four day game against the Colombo District Cricket Association will be played from September 27 to 30. This will be preceded by three one day matches on September 22, 23 and 25.

Robin Singh (captain), S Sriram (vice captain), S Ramesh, S Sharath, Hemang Badani, Reuben Paul, Ashish Kapoor, S Mahesh, DJ Gokulakrishnan, T Kumaran, Rajat Bhatia, WD Balaji Rao, MR Shrinivas, S Badrinath, C Hemant Kumar, R Satish, S Vasanth Saravanan, JR Madanagopal, Vikram Kumar and Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan.

The surprise move to send in Anil Kumble to open the Leicestershire innings backfired as the Indian leg spinner failed to trouble the scorers against Somerset in the National League Division One match at the County Ground at Taunton on Wednesday.

Electing to bat, Leicestershire captain Vince Wells promoted Kumble up the order but he failed to live up to his captain's expectations and off the third ball he faced, gave a simple chance to Jamie Cox from the bowling of Jones.

Then during Somerset's run chase, Kumble went wicketless in his seven overs while giving away 30 runs. But Leicestershire were indebted to Darren Maddy for their 62-run win as the England all rounder ran through the Somerset tail to take 4 for 16 in his 4 overs.