March 24, 2001
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Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has admitted to the enforcement Directorate that the foreign currency found in his Bombay Gymkhana locker amounting to nearly Rs 700, 000 (approx US$ 15,000) was indeed his. He is said to have explained to the officials that the travellers-cheques and British pounds were the allowances paid to him for personal expenses. The remaining currency was the unspent amount of foreign exchange he availed on his many foreign tours. He stressed that he had kept the money in the locker because of the renovation work going on in his home.  Giving Pakistan a run for their money are the enthusiastic Wellington side who took a comprehensive 168 run lead before they declared on the second day of their three-day encounter. Pakistan at stumps were 49-1, still 119 runs behind and battling for survival on a pitch that is full of life. Left-armer James Franklin and leg-spinner Brooke Walker have been recalled to the New Zealand side for the third and final Test that begins on Tuesday at Hamilton. The young turks of India's win over Australia in the Test series - VVS Laxman and Harbhajan Singh - are looking forward to the one-day international series. Harbhajan who has been a thorn in the flesh of the Aussie batting in the just concluded Tests said he would like to prove his effectiveness in the shorter version too. The one-day series begins with a day/night encounter in Bangalore on 25 March. The Australian media showered praise on the Indian fight that resulted in a series win for the hosts. Special praise was reserved for Harbajan Singh who was referred to as the "turbanator". Former Australian leg-spinner and now a coach Peter Philpott said Shane Warne's ineffectiveness in India was caused by his "size" that made him sweat too much. In humid conditions when sweating so much it becomes difficult to grip the ball, and as a leg spinner it becomes difficult to bowl he explained. With all the euphoria over the Indian win slowly dying down, highlights and television replays have shown that the ball that skewed off Sachin Tendulkar's bat to be caught by Mark Waugh in the slips in the second innings of Jason Gillespie was in fact a no ball. One wonders what that would have meant to the millions of hysterical Indians had their team lost. England skipper Graham Thorpe believes that England can recover from the loss of the first one-day international at Dumbulla, to come back and win the one-day series just like they won the Tests. Thorpe who top scored yet again with 62 couldn't prevent the slide as England could muster only 143. The Sri Lankans were able to over haul the target with 5 wickets to spare. The South Africans are not taking it easy while going into the third Test at Bridgetown, Barbados beginning next week. They are expecting a huge fight back from the home team. South Africa are to take on a West Indies Board XI in a three day match at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown beginning today. The Board XI will be lead by Shivnaraine Chanderpaul who has been inexplicably left out of the Test side. After the rather shock defeat they received from the under-dogs India, the Australians are still looking for answers to many questions. Breaking away from tradition, the selectors have decided to send only a 15-man squad to England in the quest of retaining the Ashes away from home. The past has always seen a 17-man tour but the Australian chairman of selectors believes that with a number of Australians engaged in the county circuit, finding sudden replacements won't be a problem The inevitable is just being prolonged. India's withdrawal from the three-nation Sharjah tournament featuring Pakistan and Sri Lanka is just a matter of time. The government is unlikely to sanction the trip to the desert that is scheduled to take place from April 8 to 20. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has admitted to the enforcement Directorate that the foreign currency found in his Bombay Gymkhana locker amounting to nearly Rs 700, 000 (approx US$ 15,000) was indeed his. He is said to have explained to the officials that the travellers-cheques and British pounds were the allowances paid to him for personal expenses. The remaining currency was the unspent amount of foreign exchange he availed on his many foreign tours. He stressed that he had kept the money in the locker because of the renovation work going on in his home. The Bangladesh Cricket Board has invited five Indian cricketers S Ramesh, SS Das, Yuvraj singh, RS Sodhi, and HH Kanitkar to play in an invitation XI against a Bangladesh XI to commemorate the country's independence day on March 27. India thrashed Australia by 154 runs in a 40-over-a-side friendly match played to generate funds for the earth-quake victims of Gujarat. Sachin Tendulkar made an aggressive 93 of 49 balls as India raced to 338-8 in 40 overs. Australia made 189 in 27.1 overs with Michael Bevan making 58. England in Sri Lanka 1ST one-dayer at Dambulla England: 143 in 485 overs (G Thorpe 62 not out; M Muralitharan 4-29) Sri Lanka: 144-5 in 40.5 overs (S Jayasuriya 39, M Attapattu 40, R Arnold 39 not out; A Caddick 2-42) Result:Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets to lead the three match series 1-0 Man of the match: M Muralitharan (SL) Mumbai vs Punjab 1st quarter-final at Mumbai (4th day) Punjab: 383 (Ankur Kakkar 46, Pankaj Dharmani 68, Yuvraj Singh 135, Reetinder Sodhi 46; Paras Mhambrey 5-77, RV Pwar 3-115) 322 (RS Ricky 55, Manish Sharma 93, P Dharmani 73 not out, Yuvraj Singh 33; RV Pawar 6-109) Mumbai: 285 (V Mane 97, Jatin Paranjpe 68, AA Muzumdar 48; Gagandeep Singh 3-51, RS Sodhi 3-63). 85-1 (VR Mane 49 not out, Wasim Jaffer 33) Mumbai, the reigning Ranji Trophy champions need 421 on the final day to win and enter the semi-final. Incidentally no team has ever won a Ranji match chasing over 400 runs. Baroda vs Tamil Nadu 2nd quarter-final at Baroda (2nd day) Baroda: 324 (SS Parab 110, J Martin 34, Ajit Bhoite 78t; MR Srinivas 4-80, AR Kapoor 4- 64) Tamil Nadu: 185 (S Sriram 51, S Badrinath 38; Valmik Buch 6-54) Madhya Pradesh vs Orissa 3rd quarter-final at Gwalior (2nd day) MP: 437 (HS Sodhi 57, DS Bundela 78; Jai P Yadav 64, Rajesh Chauhan 36, Y Golwalkar 41 not out; P Mullick 3-45) Orissa: 110-3 (Suresh Kumar 35, RR Parida 47 not out) Railways vs Karnataka 4th quarter-final at Delhi (2nd day) Railways: 451 (Sanjay Bangar 46, TP Singh 80, SN Khanolkar 64, Santosh Sahu 122, KS Parida 48; SK Vadiaraj 4-94, Vijay Bharadwaj 3-44). Karnataka: 36-0 (J Arun Kumar 19 not out, MR Beerala 13 not out)  Yesterday's News
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
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