India file

Venkat, Dunne umpires for first TestMUMBAI: S Venkatraghavan and New Zealand's Steve Dunne would be the two umpires for the first Test be...

Venkat, Dunne umpires for first Test

MUMBAI: S Venkatraghavan and New Zealand’s Steve Dunne would be the two umpires for the first Test between India and Pakistan scheduled to be held at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai from January 28-February 1.

AV Jayaprakash is to be the third umpire monitoring TV replays while Cammie Smith of the West Indies would be the International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee for the entire series as well as the Asian Test Championship which follows.

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KS Giridharan (MP) and Dr MS Mahal (Punjab) would be the two umpires in Pakistan’s opening tour match against India `A’ at Gwalior from January 23-25.

Pitch committee

MUMBAI: Kapil Dev would oversee pitch preparations for the two-Test series between India and Pakistan. Dev, who has been retained as the Chairman of the Indian Cricket Board’s Ground and Wickets Committee, has already despatched his deputy in South Zone, Bangalore-based Kasturi Rangan, to Chennai to oversee the first Test pitchpreparations.

Devi dazzles

CALCUTTA: Sumati Devi (Manipur) made a clean sweep of all the three gold medals (75.5+110=185.5) in the women’s 75 kg event as nine new records were established on the concluding day of the junior national weightlifting championship here on Saturday.

Moraad shines

CHENNAI: Moraad Ali Khan of Delhi set two new marks on his way to winning the gold in the double trap event of the 42nd National Shooting Championship (shotgun) here at the Sivanthi Adityan Shooting Range in Alamadi about 32 kms away from here on Saturday.