Wankhede pavilion named after Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar on Tuesday joined the list of illustrious cricketers whose names have been etched at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. A proposal to name the pavilion after Tendulkar for achieving the milestone of becoming the first player in the game to score 10,000 runs in ODIs was taken at a meeting chaired by MCA vice-president Pravin Barve.

After the meeting, Barve said "the Mumbai star who achieved the milestone during the recent home series against Australia and was awarded the prestigious Maharashtra Bhushan award by the state government would be felicitated by the association on May 23 at the Wankhede stadium."

Tendulkar becomes the first active cricketer after whom a stand is named and joins former greats of Indian cricket Vijay Merchant, Vinoo Mankad, Polly Umrigar, Vijay Manjrekar and Sunil Gavaskar after whom the stands have been named. The East and West Stands have been named after Gavaskar and Merchant, while two main gates of the stadium are known as Umrigar and Mankad Gates and the dressing room has been named after Manjrekar.

Australian phone call controversy a dead issue: BCCI

The BCCI on Tuesday termed the controversy over the alleged 'anonymous phone calls' received by Australian players and the coach during the third Test match at Chennai in March as a dead issue. According to sources, the BCCI had received a letter from David Rodgers of the Australian Cricket Board on March 24 by fax informing that "Colin Miller, Adam Gilchrist and Coach John Buchanan received anonymous calls seeking information about the Test match in Chennai," quotes PTI. The letter also advised the BCCI not to pursue the matter as it had been referred to ICC's anti-corruption investigator Sir Paul Condon.

The sources, however, said BCCI secretary JY Lele prior to the Test matches had sent letters to all the hotels where both the sides were to stay stating that "no telephone calls should be connected to any player or official of both the Indian and Australian teams unless the caller identifies himself and the receiver also agrees to receive the call."

"This was a routine matter according to the rules and decisions of the ICC after the match fixing allegations in April last year," the sources added. Meanwhile, the BCCI ponders as to why the Australian cricketers took the call and why the issue was raked up after the Australians had returned home.

Wisden says records of guilty players will not be erased

Wisden Cricketers Almanac, the game's Bible on Tuesday put to rest speculation on the erasure of records of those players found guilty of match-fixing by saying they would not do so. Talking to AFP, Wisden editor Graeme Wright said such a proposal was unworkable. "From a Wisden point of view we are utterly opposed to retrospectively altering records. He added "The more you go into it, the more absurd it becomes. For example, partnership records by definition involve more than one person, so what would you do then?"

Expressing doubts over Sir Paul's knowledge about the game, Wright said "My one worry in all this is that while Sir Paul Condon is undoubtedly a competent investigator, I wonder quite how deep his knowledge of cricket is. Cricket statistics are a minefield for those who are well-versed in the game, never mind those on the fringe." He added that "It would be better if the ICC did something to keep them bolted in the stable."

Meanwhile, the ICC spokesman Mark Harrison said: "That's completely speculative and has not come from the ICC. The (Anti-Corruption Unit) report is not in the public domain it has not been published or leaked." A report in the Sunday Times suggested that Sir Paul Condon, the head of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) anti-corruption unit, was putting forward the expunging of records from Wisden.

Chetan Chauhan retained as manager

In a continuation policy, the BCCI has retained former Indian opener Chetan Chauhan as administrative manager for India's tour of Zimbabwe. Chauhan was the manager for the recently concluded Australian series at home.

Meanwhile, left-arm medium pacer from Jammu and Kashmir, Surinder Singh Bagla, has replaced Baroda seamer Rakesh Patel in the ongoing preparatory camp in Bangalore for the upcoming Zimbabwe tour. This was announced by the Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly on Tuesday. Talking to reporters, Ganguly said "Rakesh Patel has got some problems with the knee. We have got a replacement for him." Ganguly added "Bagla is a 'good prospect' and 'that is why he is back in the camp." Bagla was also at the Chennai camp prior to Australia's tour of India.

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