* KSCA's ambitious project to unearth talent in districts

Catch them young is a well known phrase in sporting circles. But now the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has taken this slogan a step further and called their latest junior cricket development programme `Catch them young and make them great'. This scheme, to unearth talent in the various districts of the state, will be launched in October.

According to a press release from Brijesh Patel, secretary, KSCA, Makarand Waingankar, who has successfully launched and implemented such projects in Mumbai for the past two decades has prepared a project for this purpose, which has been approved by the association. Waingankar has been appointed as consultant for the scheme. The salient features are: Initially it will be introduced in the 13 districts of Mysore, Mangalore, Mercara, Udupi, Shimoga, Hassan, Hubli, Belgaum, Tumkur, Davanagere, Raichur, Bijapur and Bangalore; Age group will be between 15 and 17; There will be 20 players at each centre, totalling 260 players; Frank Tyson, the former England fast bowler and renowned coach will conducting a two week course for 70 coaches from September 24 to October 6; A few more districts would be added next year.

The KSCA Academy at Bangalore would invite 140 players from seven zones in a group of 20 to undergo advanced training for a week from November 1, 2001 to January 15, 2002. Based on the performance of these players, the best would be selected for the six week summer vacation camp. Patel expressed confidence that the scientific implementation of the project would help unearth young talent.

* TA Sekhar is Tamil Nadu selection committee chairman

Former Test cricketer TA Sekhar, who is the South Zone representative on the national selection committee has been elected chairman of the Tamil Nadu State selection committee. The other members of the committee are VB Chandrasekhar, Tony Adams and M Venkatramama.

Former State and South zone medium pacer K Bharath Kumar is again the coach for the Ranji Trophy team. The other coaches are: Under-25: RM Manohar. Under-22: T Doraiappan. Under-19: H Sundaram. Under-16: CS Umapathy. Under-14: CP Sridhar

The following are the other selection committees:

Under-14 (State): L Venkatnarayanan (Chairman), L Navaneethakrishnan, RV Pattabhirman (Trivellore) and Albert Muralidharan (Tirunelveli) For City: L Venkatnarayanan (Chairman), L Navaneethakrishnan, Yusifa Laila and PR Venkatsybramanian. Under-16: KL Balaji (Chairman), CK Venkatraman, A Shajahan and H Jayaprakash. For City: KL Balaji (Chairman), CK Venkatraman, R Mukund and L Rajkumar. Under-19: B Arun (Chairman), M Senthilnathan, N Venkatraman (Dindigul) and LR Pramood Kumar (Ramanthapuram). For city: B Arun (Chairman), M Senthilnathan, RI Palani and S Srinivasan. Under-22: AP Suresh Kumar (Chairman), CS Suresh Kumar, S Balaji (Kanchipuram) and CV Jaganathan (Coimbatore). for city: AP Suresh Kumar (Chairman), CS Suresh Kumar, VV Sankupani and D Thiyagarajan.

* Gnaneswar Rao to lead Andhra Under-19 team

Y Gnaneswar Rao will lead Andhra in the South Zone Under-19 tournament for the Cooch-Behar Trophy and the Ghulam Ahmed Trophy matches to be held later. The team was selected at Visakhapatnam on Sunday after the conclusion of the ACAs Inter-Zone tournament on Saturday.

The team: Y Gnaneswara Rao (Captain). ASK Varma, K Srinivasa Rao, V Manoj Sai, B Sriharsha, B Srivardhan, PAVN Raju, G Sankara Rao, D Kalyan Krishna, K Mahesh Singh, VVV Appa Rao, Khaja Mohiuddin, NJRS Prasad and M Suresh. Stand-byes: Y Lakshman Kishore, D Satish, A Rakesh, N Vijay Kumar, M Nayendra Kumar and L Pattabhiramiah. Coach: MN Ravi Kumar.

© CricInfo