In brief

Chandigarh doctor invited by Murali for farewell Test
Galle (Sri Lanka):Veteran off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has invited Indian orthopaedic surgeon and former medical consultant to the Sri Lankan team Mandeep Singh Dhillon to witness his swansong Test against India here. Dhillon,who assisted Muralitharan in clearing his controversial bowling action,is among the several close friends who have been invited by the spin wizard to attend the special ceremony marking the end of his Test career on the final day of the ongoing Test here.Dhillon had designed the special brace for Muralitharan when his case was presented to the ICC in 2003-04 after chucking allegations. Doubts about Muralitharan’s bowling action were cleared when the off-spinner testified with the brace on his arm. Muralitharan gets extra movement at his shoulder arm and also at his wrist,which gives impression that he chucks the bowl. It may be an illusion of a flex,” the ‘Daily Mirror’ newspaper quoted the doctor as saying from Chandigarh. —PTI

Central excise department to send notices to four IPL players
The central excise department,Chandigarh region,will soon issue notices to four cricket players,including Yuvraj Singh,for payment of Rs 1.17 crore as service tax on the income from the first and the second IPL seasons. “Demand notices to four players including Yuvraj Singh,VRV Singh,Sunny Sohal and Uday Kaul playing for Kings XI Punjab franchise will be issued by either July end or first week of August for the payment of service tax,” an official of the Central Excise Department,who is involved in investigating the IPL case,said here. A decision to raise tax demand from cricket players follows the non-disclosure of breakup of earnings by players from IPL matches. “These players have not declared about how much they earned from endorsements and how much they earned from playing matches even after notices were serviced to them. But now we have decided to levy tax on income,whether it is match fees,earned by players from IPL-I and II season after assessing their income on individual basis,” he said. The department has assessed service tax amounting to Rs 96.43 lakh on income of Yuvraj Singh,Rs 11.33 lakh on VRV Singh and Rs 4.53 lakh each on Sunny Sohal and Uday Kaul for first and the second IPL season.