* CAB promises help to indigent cricketer

The Cricket Association of Bengal has decided to help the former opener of the state Pulin Mitra. The latter has been living in poverty for the last few years. At present, he can just about raise enough money to have one meal a day.

Talking to reporters on Thursday, the joint secretary of the CAB Debdas Bannerjee said, "Mr. Mitra had applied to us for some financial aid. The application had been misplaced. However, we have recovered it and we will do everything possible to provide him with a comfortable life. We have already contacted him and have asked him to send in another application. The moment we receive it we will grant him Rs 7,500 from the Players Benevolent fund."

Bannerjee also stated that the CAB would take care of the medical expenses of Mitra. "We have a Mediclaim Insurance Policy for all former cricketers of the state. Somehow, his name has slipped from that list. We will include him in that policy shortly."

* ICC team leaves for Delhi to track down Mukesh Gupta

A two-member team of ICC's anti-corruption unit has left for New Delhi to track down bookmaker Mukesh Gupta and obtain a formal testimony from him. The team comprises Geff Rees and Alan Hawkins and is "expected to be in India for several days", a spokesman of ICC told PTI in London on Thursday. Gupta has been served with an ultimatum to substantiate charges that he offered or paid nine non-Indian players money for information by July 1.

The deposition of Gupta, a key witness in the CBI probe on betting and match fixing in cricket, is crucial for substantiation of charges against international cricketers including England's stand-in skipper Alec Stewart and West Indies star batsman Brian Lara.

The ACU chief Sir Paul Condon had stated at a meeting of the game's governing body in London on Monday that Gupta had been given a deadline till July 1 to become an approver in the worst ever scandal to have rocked the sport. If Gupta failed to cooperate, the charges that he paid money to Stewart, Lara and others for match related information, might be dropped, Condon has hinted.

* Tendulkar gets prize for fastest century in Ranji Trophy

Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was awarded a special prize for the fastest century in the Ranji Trophy last season at a meeting of all the selection committees of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) held in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Talented young opening batsman, Vinayak Mane, was awarded as many three prizes including the SV Rajadyaksha Trophy for scoring the highest number of runs in the Ranji Trophy for 2000-2001, a MCA release said on Thursday. The other two awards Mane got were the Shantibai Seth Trophy for being adjudged the best junior cricketer of the season and the LP Jai award for being choosen the best under-19 cricketer, the release adds.

Tendulkar's Indian teammates wicketkeeper Sameer Dighe and leg spinner Sairaj Bahutule bagged the Justice Tendolkar Trophy for the being the best senior cricketer of the year and the Shavak Paghdiwalla Trophy, for the highest number of wickets in the Ranji Trophy, respectively. Others who were awarded prizes were Wasim Jaffer (Dattu Phadkar award), Uday Karkera (B Banerjee award for being the best fast bowler in under-19 section), Arif Sunasara (best under-16 cricketer), Parag Madkaikar (Kumar MV Dabhir award) Sagar Pawar (SS Ragnekar award in under-14 section) and Kunal More (in under-22 section).

* TNCA elections on June 30

It's election time again for the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association and the campaign is hotting up. And while AC Muthiah is assured of re- election as another term as president, there are elections almost right down the list for all other posts. The elections will be held along with the annual general meeting of the TNCA at the S Sriraman Hall at the MA Chidambaram stadium on Saturday, June 30. The AGM will be preceded by the TNCA annual day on June 29 when the awards for the 2000-2001 season will be given.

The following are the candidates for the various posts:

Vice Presidents (City) (4 posts): J Devarajan, N Kanniah, KM Mammen, VA Parthasarathy, U Prabhakar, U Prabhakar Rao, A Vellayan and N Venkatramani

Vice Presidents (Districts) (2 posts): D Lakshmi Narayanaswami and N Srinivasan

Secretary (1 post): Ashok Kumbhat, TR Kannan, G Srinivasan and AS Venkateswaran

Joint secretary (1 post): S Kesavan and SE Shankar Rao,

Asst Secretary (1 post): KC Sampath Kumar

Treasurer (1 post): G Srinivasan and CR Vijayaraghavan

Executive Committee Members (City) (9 posts): VP Narasimhan, RV Radhakrishnan, L Sivaramakrishnan, GC Dangi, A Srinivasan, SLN Mani, KRK Namdev, KS Viswanathan, PP Swathy, R Chandrasekhran, KK Raghunathan, Victor Fernandez, D Sivanandam, K Murali, G Natarajan and K Mohan

Executive Committee Members (Districts) (5 posts): KS Srinivasan (Dharmapuri), Muthukamaraj (Nagapattinam), C Mareeswaran (Ramanathapuram) S Ramanan (Villupuram), R Thivaprahasam (Virudhunagar)

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