Supreme Court quash land allocation to Saurav Ganguly

In a hold up to former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly, the Supreme Court on Thursday quashes the land portion to him by the West Bengal Government in 2000.

Quashing the share of 63.04 ‘katha’ land in the posh Salt Lake city, a bench headed by Justice A K Ganguly heading for the cricketer to submit the land within two weeks.

The court agreed the order on an appeal filed by a West Bengal-based NGO, Humanity and others, demanding the Calcutta High Court’s order which had uphold the state government’s decision of allot the land to Ganguly.

Allowing the appeal of NGO, the bench quashed the allotment and also directed the government to repayment the money paid by Ganguly for the land.

The NGO had suspected that the land was illegally alloted to Ganguly as it was earmark for a college. The state government had accommodate Ganguly’s request without amend the master plan, the NGO had alleged.

The NGO had submitted that the state government dishonored all norms and events while allot the prime land to the former Indian cricket captain.

The Calcutta High Court had, in April last year, uphold the land allotment observe in its order that there was no chance in the state government’s action of allotting the land to Ganguly.

This order was challenge by the NGO following which the top court had issued notice to the state government on September 16, last year.

The apex court also took an undertaking from the cricketer’s counsel on the same day, that no building activities will be done by him on the doubtful land and status quo would be maintained till further order.

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'Mumbai players have be fully fit'

Mumbai Indians players have not played throughout injury in the IPL, Coach Robin Singh said on Thursday.

"As far as I know, in our team, no one has completed that. I can't actually answer that question," Singh said.

Despite moving injury, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gambhir played the eliminator next to Mumbai Indians on Wednesday and the move has now snowball into a major argument, sparking a discuss on whether players are more keen to play in cash-rich events like IPL rather than the country.

Singh said the result of Friday's must-win second qualifier match against Royal Challengers Bangalore will depend on how his boys execute the plans.

"Obviously, we have consideration about how we want to go about things. We have our own plans ready for what we would like to do. The significant thing is to be able to carry out those plans."

"It's clearly a knockout game. We have done attractive well against RCB. The few outings we have had in the past, we have compressed them. This is a fresh game. We have to start from scratch. We have to change and regroup," Singh told reporters on Thursday.

The former India left-hander is also conscious of the threat Chris Gayle poses. "You can't ignore the fact that Gayle is in terrific form, and likewise with most of our bowlers, we have been bowling very well. You have to back yourself to bowl well against anyone."

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Fleming: complicated to say 'No' to IPL

Chennai coach Stephen Fleming doesn't sense that it is up to the cricket boards to make a decision whether there should be a requirement on the number of matches each player should play.

"It is upto the person boards to decide about bring conditions on the number of matches. I don't think there should be club vs. country here. If the boards are not happy with the quantity of cricket being played they should put circumstances on it," Fleming told journalists when asked about players like Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag infuriating their injuries before an important international series.
The former New Zealand skipper admitted that it is hard for players to say "No" to IPL.

"It is hard for the players to say no. Each game is significant. As a expert cricketer, it is one's responsibility to play. IPL has value for the BCCI as it is not a rivalry that is played in off-shore. It is a real cricket event and it is important to the Indian landscape," he stated.

Fleming praise CSK's top Indian stars like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina who always want to be in the thick of things.

"I see real fervor for the Indian players wanting to play in this event. My skipper (Dhoni) and Raina are good examples of that. They want to keep playing cricket even after the ICC World Cup final. It is very tough to stop players from playing. I do not think that they play for financial rewards. I think it is their desire to competing and keep doing well," he concluded.

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Gambhir will be drop if he is unfit: BCCI

The BCCI is in the procedure of analyzing Gautam Gambhir’s medical reports and will fall the stand-in captain from the tour of the West Indies if he is establish to be unfit.

BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan said the Board had established the reports submit by Kolkata Knight Riders’ physio Andrew Leipus on Gambhir’s shoulder damage and a decision will be taken very quickly.

“We have established the statement from Leipus and we are analyzing it. We will take into account all aspect of the damage”, Srinivasan told PTI.

“We are taking store of the report and we will take a final conclusion once we are throughout with it. If we find that he is not fit, he will not go on the tour. We will then make a choice on a substitute”, he said.

Gambhir, named skipper of the team for next month’s West Indies tour, continued the injury to his right shoulder during the World Cup final next to Sri Lanka last month while taking a catch.

The injury got further motivated when Gambhir made a descending stop during their IPL match next to Mumbai Indians on May 22.

Gambhir is still not sure how bad his shoulder damage is as he is still pending the result of MRI scan, done to calculate the amount of damage. KKR’s physio Leipus, in his report to the BCCI, said Gambhir wants four to six weeks’ relax to get well fully, which means that the Indian opener could even miss the following tour of England.

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