The Indian camp in Zimbabwe had more to worry about when Sachin Tendulkar and Ashish Nehra were forced to skip the net practice yesterday. Tendulkar is reported to have strained a hamstring when he was chasing a ball in the field towards the fag end of the Harare Test, while Nehra, who impressed one and all with his bowling in both the Test matches and forced the selectors to keep him back for the triangular series, also missed nets because of a strained muscle. The two however should be fit by Sunday when India play their first match against Zimbabwe. The Indians, meanwhile play Zimbabwe A in a practice match tomorrow.

The additions to the Indian one-day squad Harvinder Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Virendra Sehwag and Reetinder Sodhi arrived at Harare and were soon involved in a net session. The youngsters looked keen and enthusiastic. Coach John Wright created a match situation in the nets with batsmen batting at both ends and forced them to practice quick running between the wickets, so that the players could go for singles whenever they played a shot. Meanwhile, SS Das, S Ramesh, J Srinath and Sairaj Bahutule, who were part of the Test squad left for India.

The coloured clothing with the new sponsor's logo arrived for the Indian team yesterday. Sahara India, the new sponsors of the Indian team will begin their sponsorship contract with the BCCI starting with the triangular tournament in Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, cricketing heroes Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, among others will be the show pieces of a fashion show that is to be organised in Mumbai after the team gets back. The team sponsor, Sahara India, are organising an event to show off their latest acquisition the Indian cricket team. Rocky S, a top fashion designer, who also happens to design Bollywood star Hritik Roshan's outfits will dress the Indian team. The theme of the show will be "Cricket on the Ramp" and the likely date of the function is July 9, when the team returns from Zimbabwe.

Orissa's sports minister is reportedly sore over the exclusion of his state's blue-eyed boy Shiv Sunder Das for the one-day series in Zimbabwe. The minister felt that considering his fine performance in the Test series, he should have been retained, as selectors have done so in the case of Ashish Nehra. Das was the man of the series in the two match Test series that was drawn one-all.

West Indies run of poor performance continues. The team were handed a seven-wicket thrashing by a Zimbabwe Country Districts team. After winning the toss and batting first, the visitors could muster only 206 in 50 overs, a target that was easily overhauled by the host team in 48 overs.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has been requesting the British government to bring in laws so as to prevent ground and pitch invasions during cricket matches. The ECB has requested the government to initiate football-type legislations that ensures strict punishments and hefty fines to fans who try to disrupt the game.

Steve Waugh, the Australian captain has labelled the Pakistan fans, who threw fire crackers on the ground at Trent Bridge - as "idiots". He praised the authorities for their efforts to control the crowd using temporary fencing that the fans ran over at the end of the game. Waugh rued that nothing much could have been done to control a bunch of "idiots". Earlier, former England all-rounder Ian Botham, also had voiced similar sentiments about the unruly Pakistani crowd while commenting on television.

Pakistan is likely to retain Richard Pybus as the coach of the national team. The South African based Pybus was appointed at the last minute before the team left for their tour of England. Although Pakistan's performance on the tour has not exactly been outstanding, he is still likely to get an extension.

The controversial stadium at Dambulla, will after all host three matches of the triangular series between the hosts Sri Lanka along with India and New Zealand. Dambulla ran into trouble as a venue when a controversy rose regarding the ownership of the land on which the stadium was built.
But with not much time left to prepare pitches at alternative venues at Kandy and Galle and added this with accommodation hassles for the three teams, the decision to change venues ran into trouble straight away. Meanwhile, a personal intervention of the chief minister of the North Central Province who wrote to the sports minister and the Sri Lankan president, ensured that cricket will be finally played at this picturesque ground in Sri Lanka. The Rangiri Dambulla Stadium, has hosted one international match so far - against England in March this year.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been requested by the ICC's Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) to trace bookie Mukesh Gupta. In their first step towards this, the CBI will be visiting the BCCI office in Mumbai on Monday June 25. While the BCCI officials are unsure of what exactly the CBI are looking for, the CBI clarified that the visit is just to get as much information as possible that will help trace the bookie who has gone into hiding since being questioned twice by the ICC investigators.
However if Gupta decides not to provide formal evidence there is a likely hood that the cases against Alec Stewart, Brian Lara and many other international cricketers may be dropped. Gupta, in the meanwhile has been given an ultimatum and has been told to appear before the ACU by July 1, by Sir Paul Condon.

Meanwhile, UK based businessman Sanjeev Chawla, who was arrested by the Scotland Yard six months ago in connection with his alleged involvement with former South African captain Hansie Cronje to fix cricket matches during the tour of India in March last year, has been released as there was insufficient evidence to prove charges against him.

Former Indian all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar, who has been banned by the BCCI, for his involvement in match-fixing, said he was happy that he has been successful in his mission to cleanse the game in India. Prabhakar, who was the first to reveal details on match-fixing last year, by accusing former Indian captain Kapil Dev of offering him money to under-perform in a match in Sri Lanka in 1994, said the Indian cricketers are now clean. Prabhakar made these statements at a press conference in Lucknow where he wanted to claim his innocence in alleged involvement in the investment fund company fraud case. Prabhakar, who had earlier contested and lost elections in 1998, did not rule out the possibility another flirt with politics.

The ICC has decided to enhance the prize money to US$ 5 million for the next World Cup to be held in South Africa in 2003. This sum is five times larger than the prize money offered for the 1999 World Cup in England. The ICC has also instituted a 30,000 pound sterling ICC Test Championship Trophy, in the shape of a golden mace. The trophy would be presented to the Australian skipper Steve Waugh, before the start of the first Ashes Test match at Birmingham that begins on July 5.

A great sports lover and former President of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association CR Pattabhiraman, passed away in Chennai on Tuesday, June 19. He was 94. He was president of the Tamil Nadu (then known as Madras) Cricket Association from 1948-1956 and was a Union Minister in the late fifties and early sixties. He was also a decent club cricketer.

Former Bombay batsman Yeshwant Baloo Palwankar, died on Tuesday, June 19 at Pune, after a brief illness. He was 75. He appeared in 11 Ranji Trophy matches as a left-handed middle-order batsman from 1944-45 to 1954-55, scoring 319 runs (avg. 26.58) with three fifties. His highest score came in his second Ranji match, when he made 78 against Baroda in January 1945. A month earlier, he scored an unbeaten 66 on his debut against Western India at the Brabourne Stadium. He was also a decent right arm pace bowler and has captured 10 wickets (avg. 44.50). He had the distinction of captaining the Combined Universities side against the touring West Indians in 1948. His father, P Baloo, was considered one of the top cricketers of his time during the 1920s and had toured England in 1911 with the All-India team.

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