Mongia hopes to make a mark

‘‘Please do not ask me questions regarding match-fixing controversy. It’s all over for me,’’ Mongia requested the reporters who expected a quote of two from him on the row which resurfaces time and again to rock the cricket-crazy nation.Mongia said that he was preparing to play for the National side again. “And to achieve that goal, I must play well putting behind the pastâ€.

And Mongia knows it well that if he plays to the expectations of the National selectors, he’s certain to get into the National squad for there has been a void behind the stumps which he and he alone could fulfill.

As a matter of fact, the other hopefuls in the West and Central zone squads as well also pin their hopes on the Duleep Trophy Tournament which will be played on league format from this season.

The list of hopefuls could be unending. The Central Zone skipper Amay Khurasia has been doing so well with the bat this season. His teammates all-rounder Jaiprakash Yadav, who set a bowling record a month ago, Devendra Bundela, Mohammand Kaif, Amit Pagnis (who quit Mumbai to play for the Railways), spinner Murli Kartik, who had not-so-satisfactory international debut last year, and from the Western side, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Wasim Jafar, Jacom Martin, leggie Sairaj Bahutule and Abhijit Kale would try their best to put on an impressive show.

India’s new-ball sensation Zaheer Khan should have nothing to worry for he is fit to spit fire once again after injury had restricted his performance in a drawn Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai. Though he wasn’t supposed to play the Nagpur match initially, certain omissions forced him to join the West Zone team. And his presence on the field alone could be an advantage for West Zone. However, the VCA wicket which conceded over-thousand runs in the final Test against Zimbabwe could be Zaheer’s worry. How he exploits the rectangle is to be seen next four days.

In a way, Central Zone’s task has been cut short as the master-blaster Sachin Tendulkar and medium pacer Ajit Agarkar won’t be playing here. Injured Vinod Kambi’s absence also brings some cheers to the hosts.

Over to the VCA wicket. Khurasia’s perception of the wicket suggested, “it’s a pure batting trackâ€, while Mogia opined, “it would start taking some turn from the second dayâ€. Some contrast this.

On the other hand, curator Amar Karlekar had something else on his mind. ‘‘It’s a sporting track. It would benefit both batsmen and bowlers.â€

The curator has some sound reasons to second his conclusion. The recently-conluded Ranji Trophy match saw Uttar Pradesh pile up huge score and then thrash Vidarbha by innings with the help of their spinners. However, the opponents playing the Nagpur tie seem to be of equal standings. And hence, one would not deny the fact that the match would turn out to be an interesting battle.

The teams
(Central Zone): Amay Khurasia (Captain), Gagan Khoda, Amit Pagnis, JP Yadav, Mohd. Kaif, D Bundela, Raja Ali, Murali Kartik, K Parida, Salab Srivastav, A Zaidi, Narendra Hirwani, R Kanwat, Yere Goud, A Sharma and R Zalani.West Zone: Nayan Mongia (Captain), Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Wasim Jaffer, Connor Williams, Jacob Martin, Abhijit Kale, Niraj Patel, Zaheer Khan, Iqbal Siddique, Santosh Saxena, Sairaj Bahatule, Ramesh Power, Valmik Buch, Prashant Noshi and Santanshu Kotak.
Umpires: K G Laxminarayan (Tamil Nadu) and V N Kulkarni (Karnataka).Match Referee: Bhairav Ganguly.

Star-studded South to meet North
VIJAYAWADA: Star-studded South Zone will clash with defending champions North Zone in their opening tie of the four-day Duleep Trophy cricket league match at Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium here from Wednesday.

Stylish batsman VVS Laxman leads the South Zone which has allrounders Sunil Joshi, Robin Singh and Hemang Badani. Most of the South players performed well with bat and ball in the Deodhar Trophy, which concluded recently.

North Zone, led by Vikram Rathore, has young and dynamic Players Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and R S Sodhi in their ranks.

Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid opted out of the South Zone team due to health reasons. Venkatapathy Raju and Tanveer Jabbar were included in their place.The match has gained significance with the presence of national selection committee member Madan Lal along with chairman Chandu Borde to assess the performance in the wake of ensuring Australian tour during February-April 2001.

The Teams: South Zone: VVS Laxman (Captain), S Ramesh, S Sriram, nANDA Kishore, Hemang Badani, Robin Singh, Tilak Naidu, T Kumaran, Shahabuddin, Tinu Yohan, Sunil Joshi, Ashish Kapoor, D Ganesh, Vijay Bharadwaj, Tanveer Jabbar and Venkatapathy Raju.
North Zone: Vikram Rathour (Captain), Vijay Dahiya, Akash Chopra, Virender Sewag, Sudhakar Ghag, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Sarandeep Singh, Harbhajan Singh, R S Sodhi, Parinder Sharma, Rajeev Nayar, Surinder Singh, Rahul Sanghvi.
South Zone manager fails to turn up
VIJAYWADA: It came as a shock to the members of the South Zone team to find that they did not have a coach-cum-manager to guide them in their crucial tie against holders North Zone.

Even as the South Zone team members reached here from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Andhra Pradesh this morning, their coach-cum-manager was yet to arrive.

The cricket authorities had appointed Hyderabad’s Arshad Ayub as the coach-cum-manager for a month’s tenure, but the former Test off-spinner reportedly wanted to be in office for the entire league phase, according to official sources.Ayub did not get any response from the authorities, and this could be the reason for his not reported here, the sources added.