*Sodhi to lead Punjab in Ranji league matches

Reetinder Sodhi will lead Punjab in the first three league matches of the Ranji trophy in the absence of Vikram Rathore, who shifted to Himachal Pradesh this year.

MP Pandove, secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association, who made the announcement, added that the Punjab team will take on Baroda in the first league match at PCA stadium, Mohali from November 9 to 12.

The other member of the 15-member team are Ravneet Ricky, Samrat Sharma, Ankur Kakkar,Harminder Jugnu, Navdeep Singh, Amit Uniyal, Gagandeep Singh, Vineet Sharma, Rajesh Sharma, Pankaj Dharmani (wicket-keeper), Sandeep Sawal, Harish Puri, Munish Sharma and Sanjay Mahajan.

*Zuffri to lead Assam in Ranji Trophy

Syed Zakaria Zuffri has been named as the Assam captain for the 2002-03 Ranji Trophy season. Among the 14 other players are new recruits Kiran Powar and Sunil Viswanathan.

Assam launch their challenge with a match against Orissa at NFRSA Stadium, Maligaon from Nov 9- Nov 12.

Squad: Syed Zakaria Zuffri (capt), Parag Kumar Das, Sukhvinder Singh, Kiran Powar, Sumit Ranjan Das, Arland Konwar, Manoj Joglekar, RM Gohain, Mark Ingti, Zaved Zaman, Sunil Viswanathan, Mrigen Talukdar, Mansoor Ahmed, Samarjit Nath and Sourav Bhagawati. Coach: Lalchand Rajput Manager : Sanjay Dey.

*Sutane to lead Vidarbha in Ranji Trophy

Staff Reporter Paresh Sutane will lead 14-man Vidarbha team in the 2002-03 Ranji Trophy leagues matches against Saurashtra and Services.

Ali Akbar, meanwhile, will lead the under-19 team> Chandrasekhar Atram has been named the vice-captain.

Squad: Paresh Sutane (captain), Alind Naidu ( vice-captain), Amit Deshpande (wicket-keeper), P Vivek, Rupesh Shahane, Ulhas Gandhe, Samir Khare, Chandrashekhar Atram, Madhusudan Acharya, Abhijieet Piprode, Nitin Gawande, Swaroop Srivastva, Sandeep Singh, Rahul Jadhav

Stand byes: Amol Jichkar, Amit Date, Umesh Patil, Ketan Kaore, Adwait Manohar

Coach: Murthy Rajan Manager SN Abhyankr

Vidarbha Under-19: Ali Akbar (captain), Chandrashekhar Atram (vice- captain), Faiz Fazal, Virat Mishra, Anup Fulper, Owamir Afzal, Saurabh Ambedkar, Mohammad Hashim, Akshay Wakhare, Ashwin Rajan, Abhijeet Gaidhane, Vaibhav Rajurkar, Azhar Sheikh, Madhup Aney.

Stand byes: Srikant Kotlikar, Mangesh Bhoyar, Amit Bhomle

Coach: Praveen Hignikar Manager: Shrish Joshi

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