& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Captaincy goes to Dravid

Ganguly has to prove fitness for selection
Rahul Dravid was confirmed as India's cricket captain on Thurs-day, ending Sourav Ganguly's five-year reign as the country's most successful skipper.
The five-man selection committee, headed by former Test wicketkeeper Kiran More, named Dravid, 32, captain for a series of seven limited-overs internationals against Sri Lanka and five one-dayers against South Africa to be played at home from October 25 to November 28.
"It was an unanimous decision by the selectors to appoint Dravid as captain," secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Karunakaran Nair told reporters here, but declined to take questions.
Dravid's elevation to the top job was widely predicted in the media over the last few days as Ganguly struggled with injury, poor batting form and a damaging spat with coach Greg Chappell.
Ganguly, whose 21 Test and 76 one-day wins as captain is an Indian record, missed the recent domestic one-day trial matches here due to a tennis elbow injury.
The left-hander, who is due to
undergo a fitness test next week, must prove his batting form in domestic cricket before being eligible for selection again in the national squad.
With India also due to play Test series against Sri Lanka, Pakistan, England and the West Indies in a
gruelling schedule till July, the selectors clearly did not want to take chances with an uncertain Ganguly at the helm.
Dravid, a prolific top order batsman and long-time deputy to Ganguly, led India in five Tests and 17 one-dayers in the captain's absence, with mixed results.
Under Dravid, India won and lost two Tests each against Australia and Pakistan last season, while the fifth against New Zealand was drawn.
In 17 one-dayers as captain, Dravid won seven matches, lost nine while one was rained off.
Dravid, whose wife Vijeta gave birth to their first-born son in Nagpur on Tuesday, was away in Australia playing for the world team in the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Super Series.
Dravid, who was selected as the ICC player of the year in 2004, has scored 7,871 runs at an average of 58.30 in 91 Tests with 20 centuries.
In one-day cricket, he has made 8,429 runs in 265 matches with 10 centuries.
Ganguly, 33, was captain on the recent Zimbabwe tour where India lost the one-day final to New Zealand before defeating the weakened hosts 2-0 to record their first Test series win outside the sub-continent since 1986.
But the tour was marred by a highly-publicised row between Ganguly and coach Chappell, the former Australian captain and batting great who took over the Indian team in June.
Chappell last month wrote an FROM PAGE 16
e-mail to cricket board officials, mysteriously leaked to the media, in which he said that Ganguly was physically and mentally unfit to lead India.
Worried officials brokered a truce between the duo, but Ganguly's elbow injury and poor batting form appears to have gone against him.
Ganguly's laboured six-hour 101 against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo was his first Test century since November 2003. He has scored 5,066 runs in 84 Tests with 12 hundreds.
He also has 10,123 one-day runs, only the fourth batsman after compatriot Sachin Tendulkar, Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya and Pakistan's Inzamamul Haq to reach the five-figure mark in limited-overs cricket.
The Indian team for the first two matches against Sri Lanka will be named on Friday.
abroad before his first one at home.
Scores 145 off 129 balls against Sri Lanka at the World Cup in England, where he makes 461 runs at an average of 65.85.
2000: Named as one of Wisden's five cricketers of the year.
2001: Scores 180 while Vangipurappu Laxman makes 281 in a fifth-wicket stand of 376 as India defeat Australia in Kolkata after following on to end the tourists' record 16-Test winning streak.
2002: Becomes the fourth player after West Indian Everton Weekes, Australian Jack Fingleton and South African Alan Melville to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings.
2003: Cracks 233 at Adelaide, leading India to an upset Test win in Australia, becoming only the second Indian batsman, with Sunil Gavaskar, to score four Test doublecenturies.
2004: Captains India to victory in the first Test in Pakistan in the absence of injured captain Sourav Ganguly. India go on to complete a historic maiden Test series triumph across the border.
2004: Scores a career-best 270 in the deciding third Test against Pakistan, overtaking Gavaskar's record of four Test double hundreds. It is the third highest score by an Indian after Virender Sehwag's 309 and Laxman's 281.
2004: Named ICC player-of-the-year and Test player-of-the-year.
2005: Scores hundreds in both innings, 110 and 135, in the second Test against Pakistan in Calcutta to achieve the feat for the second time.
Named captain for a full series for the first time, for a one-day tri-series in Sri Lanka in July-August in the absence of Sourav Ganguly for the early games due to a four-game ban.
Oct 13: Appointed captain for two one-day series against Sri Lanka and South Africa, replacing Ganguly.