Mumbai

Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott has called for Duncan Fletcher to be axed as coach following the side’s comprehensive defeat to Australia in a Champions Trophy group match on Saturday. ”If you talk to people like John Wright and Bob Woolmer, successful coaches with a lot of experience, they will tell you that the job comes with a shelf-life,” Boycott wrote in Monday’s Daily Telegraph.

South Africa batsman Herschelle Gibbs turned his attention to cricket on Friday, a day after being interrogated by Indian police in a six-year-old match-fixing case. The 32-year-old explosive batsman was playing in a warm-up match against a Mumbai team, three days before South Africa open their Champions Trophy campaign against New Zealand.

South Africa skipper Graeme Smith said England’s success in their Ashes defence starting in Australia next month will depend on how they cope with the aggressive home crowds. The SA team complained racial taunts during their tour of Australia at the turn of the year that prompted the International Cricket Council to introduce a new code of conduct on racism and strict measures for spectators.

Captain Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis led from the front as South Africa warmed up for the Champions Trophy with a dazzling batting display on Wednesday. Left-handed Smith smashed 90 off 54 balls and Kallis hammered 78 as the Proteas piled up 303-8 from 50 overs after being sent in to bat by the Saurashtra Ranji Trophy team in a practice match.

Indian police on Saturday blamed July’s deadly train bombings in Mumbai on Pakistan’s intelligence agency and the outlawed pro-Pakistan militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. ”We have solved the 7/11 bomb blast case,” Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy said, referring to the July 11 attacks that killed 186 people and injured more than 800.

A restaurant in India’s financial hub has agreed to change its name from Hitler’s Cross following strong protests by the country’s tiny Jewish community and pressure from Israel. Hitler’s Cross, which opened a week ago using posters of the Führer and Nazi swastikas for publicity, initially refused to change its name.

Hundreds of people thronged to a midtown city beach in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, on Saturday after word spread that sea water there had turned sweet, with many seeing the development as a divine sign. People, largely Muslims, started gathering late on Friday to collect the water off Mahim beach on the shores of the Arabian Sea.

Indian police have arrested a journalist who may know those behind a series of coordinated bombs on Mumbai’s rail network earlier this month that killed 186 people, officers said on Monday. The latest arrest takes the number of people in police custody to nine in an investigation that has spread across several states, and into neighbouring Nepal.

Two more Indian Muslims have been arrested in connection with this month’s Mumbai train bombings, taking the number of people in custody to eight, police said on Friday. The blasts that killed more than 180 people have been blamed on Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistani military spy agency Inter Services Intelligence.

A rarely used mixture of high explosives, fuel oil and ammonium nitrate was used in the Mumbai train blasts last week that killed 182 and wounded hundreds, the lead investigator said on Monday. Anti-Terrorism Squad chief KP Raghuvanshi declined to comment on whether the mixture, which included the high explosive RDX, could be linked to a specific group.

The well-coordinated bomb attacks on Mumbai’s rail network that left 183 dead bore the hallmarks of Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a senior officer said on Wednesday. Police, however, said they were awaiting test results from evidence at the scene of the blasts including several commonly-used timing devices.

Seven explosions ripped through commuter trains and stations during evening rush hour in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, on Tuesday, killing at least 163 people and wounding 464 in an attack blamed on terrorists. Ambulances raced to hospitals with what seemed to be an endless number of the injured and the dead.

At least six explosions rocked the railway network in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, during the evening rush hour on Tuesday, officials from the state-run railway told the Press Trust of India. Officials said at least 40 people died in the blasts and hundreds were injured, and the country has been put on high alert.

Large tracts of India’s western financial hub of Mumbai were under water on Wednesday as the weather bureau warned further heavy rains were on the way and the death toll from the monsoon deluge rose to nine. The deaths brought to at least 234 the number who have been killed across India since the arrival of the monsoon in May.

Lightning storms and monsoon rains lashing parts of India have killed at least 28 people and wrought havoc in the country’s commercial capital Mumbai, officials and witnesses said on Thursday. Strong winds with speeds of about 100kph, lightning and heavy rains killed at least 18 people and injured 21 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh overnight, police said.

A Catholic group on Tuesday called on Christians to starve themselves to death in protest at the release of <i>The Da Vinci Code</i> at cinemas in India, as others burned copies of the novel. The Catholic Secular Forum said it hoped thousand of people would attend a protest on Wednesday in Mumbai to burn effigies of Dan Brown, the author of the best-selling novel.

An Indian schoolboy, whose name and insatiable appetite for runs bear a strong resemblance to superstar Sachin Tendulkar, is making waves in cricketing circles. Rahul Tondulkar, like the original master, hails from cricket-crazy Mumbai and is a right-handed batsman who has already notched up record-breaking feats in schools cricket at the age of 14.