Senior players take a break from practice

Some senior members of the Indian team took a deserving break on Monday after their triumph over World Champions Australia on Saturday last. Team coach Anshuman Gaekwad said "the senior members - Sachin Tendulkar, skipper Sourav Ganguly, leg-spinner Anil Kumble and paceman Venkatesh Prasad skipped the practice session."

Ganguly allows the players to be on their own after a game and doesn't mind his team mates going out and socialising. The break comes before the semifinal game against the winners of the South Africa-England match, to be played on October 13.

Dighe to lead Mumbai against Rest of India

Former India keeper Sameer Dighe has been retained as captain of the victorious Mumbai side for the five day Irani Trophy match against the VVS Laxman-led Rest of India squad at the Wankhede stadium starting from October 13. The Mumbai side will not have the services of ace batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli apart from all rounder Ajit Agarkar. The three players will miss the match as they are on national duty at the ICC KnockOut tournament at Nairobi.

Mumbai were crowned the Ranji Trophy champions last year. In the head-to-head contests, Mumbai have so far won the Irani Trophy twelve times while the Rest of India have emerged triumphant six times in previous encounters. Mumbai last won this tournament in 1995-96. Once (1965-66) they were joint winners.

The Mumbai team: Sameer Dighe (capt-wicketkeeper), Wasim Jaffer, Amit Pagnis, Amol Muzumdar, Ramesh Powar, Rajesh Pawar, Nilesh Kulkarni, Kiran Powar, Paras Mhambrey, Santosh Saxena, Sriram Kannan, Nishit Shetty, Swapnil Hazare, Amit Dani and Sushant Manjrekar. Standbye: Omkar Salvi. Coach: Ashok Mankad.

Bhave, Sugwekar not among Maharashtra Ranji probables

The Maharashtra selection committee, comprising Chandu Borde, who is also the chairman of the national selection committee, Vijay Shetty, VR Chandorkar and Avinash Ranade met in Pune on October 8 to select 33 probables for the State Ranji team this season. In a surprise move, they dropped senior Maharashtra players including former skippers Surendra Bhave and Shantanu Sugwekar from the probables list.

Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) secretary Anant Mate said "The nets will commence from October 16 at the Nehru Stadium under the newly appointed coach Balwinder Singh Sandhu. Former Ranji player Shyam Oka will be the assistant coach, while Sriram Torvi will be the net incharge."

The probables: Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Abhijit Kale, Dheeraj Jadhav, Hemant Kinikar, Kaushik Aphale, Nikhil Dixit, Amit Doshi, Parag Chitale, Mandar Sane, Sanjay Kondhalkar, Sachin Nair, Iqbal Siddiqui, Yogesh Kompal, Pranav Inamdar, Ashutosh Nanavare, Prakash Kadu, Satyen Lande, Mandar Dalvi, Satyajit Satbhai, Jaideep Narse, Niranjan Godbole, Rahul Kanade, Kapil Laghate, Rahul Dhole Patil, Aditya Manohar, Sagar Shah, Amol Ghag, Aniruddha Oak, Sameer Shaikh, Sachin Aradhye, Sandeep Lele, Avinash Jadhav and Vivek Sawant.

Delhi-Haryana Ranji tie to be hosted at new venue

The cricket ground of the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) at Gualpahari near Gurgaon will soon attain the status of a first class cricket ground. The Haryana Cricket Association (HCA) has decided to host the all important Ranji tie against Delhi at this venue. According to Ranbir Singh Mahindra, secretary, HCA, the only Ranji match to be hosted by Haryana this season will be held at TERI from November 5 to 8.

Mahindra also disclosed that the stadium, situated on the Gurgaon- Faridabad highway is equipped with all the facilities required for organising a first class match. Necessary permission for the use of new stadium has been granted to HCA by the Board of Control for Cricket in India after a committee visited the venue. Earlier the matches were being organised at Nehru stadium in Gurgaon which happened to be a multipurpose ground.

This season Haryana starts their Ranji campaign on October 30 with a match against Jammu and Kashmir at Udhampur to be followed by the matches against Delhi (November 5 to 8 at TERI), versus Punjab (Nov 11 at Gurgaon), versus Himachal Pradesh (Nov 17 at Chamba) and against Services (Nov 23 at Delhi).

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