Giant-killer Sanjay Dixit said his victory over Lalit Modi in the Rajasthan Cricket Association election was a result of a 'negative' vote. "Beating Modi was easy in the sense that he was autocratic in his functioning," the new RCA president said. "He was a law unto himself. He was trying to act like God. He would do everything with unscrupulous means and with money power. He was running a mighty empire, which was full of money, power, pelf and horse trading. He had a very aggressive legal strategy."

Former Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) president Lalit Modi, who lost his post to Sanjay Dixit, is down but certainly not out of action.  

Three half-centuries propelled Baroda to a thumping victory over Hyderabad in the Late Capt Vijay Hazare All India Knockout Tournament being played at the Polytechnic ground, Agartala, on Monday.

The Pinal Shah-led outfit has now entered the semifinals of the tournament, where it will meet the winner of the Delhi-Bengal match.

Chasing a modest target of 168, Baroda got off to a poor start as KH Devdhar (5) was given marching orders by pacer MP Arjun. However, SR Solanki (59) and Azhar Bilakhia (50) steadied the ship with a 76-run stand for the second wicket. Solanki hit 10 boundaries in his hour-long stay at the wicket, during which he faced 49 balls.

Dubai, Mar. 2 : India will be ranked second in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship table if it wins its upcoming five-match series in New Zealand 5-0.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team currently lies in third position, some four ratings points behind second-placed Australia and five behind top team South Africa.

A clean sweep for India will put it ahead of Ricky Ponting's men by a fraction of a point but it would remain just behind the Proteas in what would be an extraordinarily tightly packed leader board with one ratings point separating the top three ODI teams in world cricket.

Wellington, Mar. 2 : Six Indian Test specialists will get match practice over the next fortnight to prepare themselves for playing conditions in New Zealand.

Four first-class sides in New Zealand will have an Indian player for the next round of the State Championship on Friday, and two not.

The two other Indians will play the following week, for yet-to-be-determined teams.

To most people, that constitutes an uneven playing field, not to mention an undermining of the competition, but there were no complaints last night.

The Bengal selectors have named Laxmi Ratan Shukla as the skipper of the Bengal team for the Vijay Hazare Trophy knock-out phase.

However, on the other hand, the East Zone selectors had selected Manoj Tiwary as the skipper for the East Zone team for the next month's Deodhar Trophy.

With this, it becomes clear that there is a divide among the Bengal and zonal selectors over the selection of skipper.