IT officials question Kapil Dev

The Income Tax authorities on Thursday questioned the former Indian team coach Kapil Dev regarding the documents recovered during the raids conducted at his New Delhi residence on July 20.

Quoting the former Indian captain, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported that Kapil Dev confirmed that he was questioned and added that he was co-operating with the IT officials. Kapil Dev said that he had been visiting the IT office several times during the last three months and that there was nothing new about Thursday's questioning.

PTI also reported that the IT Department was in the process of completing the `status report' and that the report is expected to be made public by the end of the month. Earlier during a nation-wide swoop on July 20, the IT authorities had raided several cricketers, administrators and book makers.

Tributes paid to Anthony de Mello

A function was organised by the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai on Wednesday to observe the 100th birth anniversary of the former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Anthony De Mello and to laud his contributions to the cause of Indian cricket. A book, The Story of the Bombay Pentangulars, written by Vasant Raiji and Mohandas Menon, was released on the occasion.

The BCCI secretary, Jaywant Lele, who was present, declared that the board had taken note of the centenary of its late founder-secretary at its recent AGM in Chennai and had decided to hold a grand function some time during this season.

Various speakers recalled the achievements of de Mello. This included the formation of the BCCI, which was granted recognition by the ICC during the late 20s, the commencement of the national championship (for the Ranji Trophy), India's first modern cricket stadium, the Brabourne stadium which was built in 1937, and the formation of the Delhi & District Cricket Association, of which de Mello was the first captain.

De Mello also kept Indian cricket alive during the War years by arranging visits by the Australian Services and later was also responsible for the visit of the Commonwealth teams in the late forties and early fifties. After Independence, he became a close associate of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and was instrumental in organising the first Asian Games in New Delhi in 1951.

UPCA names Gyanendra Pandey to lead Ranji team

The secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, Jyoti Bajpai on Thursday announced the State teams for the forthcoming Ranji Trophy and the Cooch Behar Trophy. Gynandra Pandey will lead the Ranji Trophy team in their first match against Rajasthan at Jaipur from October 30 to November 2 while Parvinder Singh is to captain the Under-19 team which will take on Vidharba in the Central Zone league game at Nagpur from October 22 to 25.

The teams:

Ranji Trophy: Gyanendra Pandey (captain), Rizwan Shamshad, Manoj Mudgal, Jyoti Yadav, Mohd Kaif, Mohd Saif, Ashish Winston Zaidi, Ratnesh Mishra, Musi Raza, Pankaj Tewari, Dhananjay Singh, Shalabh Sriwastava, Mritunjay Tripathi, Parvinder Singh and Rohit Prakash. Manager: Choudhary Asif Ali. Coach: Yashpal Sharma.

Cooch-Behar Trophy: Parvinder Singh (captain), Anshul Kapoor, Arun Sharma, Alok Pandey, Dhananjay Singh, Prashant Malviya, Subhash Dixit, Abbas Raza, Sunil Upadhyaya, Ashraf Ali, Faizan Khan, Navin Choudhary, Utkarsh Chandra, Gaurav Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar Mishra. Coach & Manager: Sarvesh Mehrotra.

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