Indian news round-up

The Delhi High Court has asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India to file its response on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking independent investigation into its functioning and accounts for the past five years.

A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Devender Gupta and Justice Cyriac Joseph also asked the Delhi and District Cricket Association, and the Central government's department of sports and youth affairs, to respond in the matter.

The PIL called for ensuring that BCCI accounts are audited transparently by the Comptroller and Auditor General, and that the board functions primarily for the promotion of cricket. They should not function as private empires of some businessmen and traders who have come to control and abuse cricket for their own interest and profit, the PIL argues.

Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was one of the cricketers targetted by Lancashire League club Nelson, skipper Duncan Spencer said on Thursday. Spencer said the club tried to sign Tendulkar as a replacement for West Indian Roger Harper.

After months of uncertainty, former West Indian batsman Keith Arthurton agreed to take over as Harper's successor last week. But Spencer admits the current Lancashire League champions tried and failed to lure more than 20 other big names - including Tendulkar - before Arthurton eventually signed the contract.

Several leading Indian players will take part in the benefit match for former Test cricketer Yashpal Sharma to be played at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in New Delhi on April 26. One team will be led by Kapil Dev and the other by Sachin Tendulkar.

Kapil Dev XI: Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, VVS Laxman, Nayan Mongia, K Srikkanth, Debasish Mohanty, Vinod Kambli, Harbhajan Singh, Manoj Prabhakar, Sanjeev Sharma, Atul Wassan, Chetan Sharma, Rajesh Chauhan, Syed Kirmani and Ajay Sharma.

Tendulkar XI: Sachin Tendulkar, Md Azharuddin, Robin Singh, Ajay Jadeja, Venkatesh Prasad, Ajit Agarkar, Amit Bhandari, Murali Karthik, Javagal Srinath, Sunil Joshi, Saba Karim, Nikhil Chopra and T Kumaran.

Bengal's ace all rounder Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, who also played a few matches for India last year, got married at a secret ceremony in Calcutta on Wednesday. The bride was Shukla's long time girlfriend Smita Sanyal, who is a student of a reputed college here. The parents of both the families were ignorant about the marriage.

Later the new Mrs Shukla said ``we were forced to keep the marriage a secret as my parents had objections to it.'' Shukla?s parents however, accepted the new bride quite graciously. Both were out of station when the marriage took place.

Shukla said ``during the last few months I could not concentrate on the game because of this problem. So we finally decided to tie the nupital knot. Hopefully, now I will be able to dedicate myself fully to the game.