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.

Melbourne, Mar. 2: Wicketkeepers in Australia are locked in a keen battle for being incumbent Brad Haddin''s understudy during the Ashes in England.

A Fox Sports report says that the leading contenders are scoring heavily in a late-season rush to impress the selectors.

The keepers are jostling to fill Luke Ronchi''s shoes after the West Australian was dropped by his state last month.

Ronchi''s future looks grim with national selector Jamie Cox declaring the understudy job vacant. Cox urged the prospective applicants to go forth and score runs.

Johannesburg, Mar. 2 : Australia cricket team coach Tim Neilsen has said that if the visitors pull off a victory today against South Africa in the Johannesburg Test, the mental strength of the side that has many youngsters will be sky high.

"I can''t see anything but us winning this game," Neilsen said after South Africa, set an improbable 454 to win, reached 2-178 at the close on the fourth day at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.

"If we do win, the mental state of this young side will be over the top. I''m really excited about this young team reaching a position where we can win this Test match," Fox Sports quoted him as saying further.

Lahore, Mar 2 : Pakistan former skipper Javed Miandad listed former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar and West Indian Vivian Richards as his all time favorite players.

"I admired lot of players but I loved watching Viv and Gavaskar. They are my favorite players," Miandad said after accepting the cap that marked his entry into the ICC''s Hall of Fame that includes 55 players.

Attending the ceremony to award Hall of Fame Caps to Miandad and Hanif Mohammad at the Gaddafi stadium, Miandad listed his innings at Sharjah against India as the best of his life, The Nation reported.

IPL chief loses Rajasthan board presidential election to govt nominee

Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi failed to get re-elected as Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) president on Sunday, losing the race 13-18 to state government nominee and senior bureaucrat Sanjay Dixit.

Modi's defeat will be seen as a serious setback to the dispensation within the Board of Control for Cricket in India, apart, of course, from putting obstacles in the path of his global ambitions.