New Delhi

Ten million girls have been killed by their parents in India in the past 20 years, either before they were born or immediately after, a government minister said on Thursday, describing it as a ”national crisis”. A United Nations Children’s Fund report released this week said 7 000 fewer girls are born in the country every day than the global average would suggest.

Tourism officials in the Indian coastal resort state of Goa are having a tough time finding lifeguards after just one candidate out of 129 passed the swimming test, a report said. Only one could swim 400m in the mandatory nine minutes and nearly half could not complete the stretch at all, the <i>Times of India</i> reported under the headline "No Baywatch in Goa: Lifeguards flunk test."

Seven thousand fewer girls are born in India each day than the global average would suggest, largely because female foetuses are aborted after sex-determination tests, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Tuesday. The problem of female foeticide has significantly worsened since 1991, Unicef said.

Indian selectors have recalled former captain Saurav Ganguly for next month’s three-Test series in South Africa. India’s poor batting form in one-day cricket and uncertainty over skipper Rahul Dravid’s availability for the opening Test in Johannesburg due to a finger injury prompted Ganguly’s recall on Thursday to bolster the brittle middle-order.

India’s cricket authorities on Friday asked chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar to fly to South Africa following the team’s crushing defeat in the second one-day international in Durban. Rahul Dravid’s Indians were widely criticised in the cricket-crazy country following their 157-run defeat on a pacy Durban track on Wednesday.

The Indian cricket board asked chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar on Friday to travel to South Africa amid stinging criticism following the team’s bad start to the tour. South Africa crushed India by 157 runs in the second one-day international on Wednesday after skittling them for 91 on a bouncy Durban pitch.

India leave for South Africa on Monday night praying their key cricketers deliver on the tough tour, after a string of below-par performances in recent one-day internationals. ”I think we need to get performances from a lot of our key players,” India captain Rahul Dravid said before the team’s departure for the two-month tour.

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly said on Tuesday he had not lost hope of playing in next year’s World Cup after returning to form with a century in a domestic tournament. The 34-year-old reminded national selectors that he had plenty of cricket left in him when he hammered an unbeaten 118 for East Zone against North Zone in a first-class Duleep Trophy match at Guwahati on Monday.

Indian authorities want to stop the daytime airing of a television advertisement promoting flavoured condoms saying it is obscene and in bad taste, a newspaper reported on Friday. The advert promotes DKT’s ”XXX” strawberry, chocolate and banana flavoured condoms with the catchline ”What is your flavour of the night?”.

Niger is keen to import Indian rice milling machines — and get advice on how to drill for oil. South Africa welcomes Indian investment to build hotels ahead of the 2010 World Cup. And Ethiopia wants help from India for its highway projects. African countries are increasingly looking to India, as well as China, for help developing their economies — moves that could shape the future of global trade flows.

Indian police have made little headway in a probe into a 2000 cricket match-fixing scam due a problem in translating taped conversations in Afrikaans, a report said on Sunday. In 2000, police in New Delhi had filed a case against Proteas cricketers, including then captain Hansie Cronje, and middlemen for allegedly accepting money to influence the outcome of matches.

South African Herschelle Gibbs revealed on Thursday the names of three former Proteas cricketers involved in a match-fixing scam, said Indian police who now want to question the trio. One of the three was Derek Crookes, who toured India with the South African squad in 2000 and played 32 one-day matches making 1 001 runs. Police declined to identify the other two.

South African Herschelle Gibbs revealed on Thursday the names of three former Proteas cricketers involved in a match-fixing scam, said Indian police who now want to question the trio. One of the three was Derek Crookes who toured India with the South African squad in 2000 and played 32 one-day matches making 1 001 runs. Police declined to identify the other two.

South African opener Herschelle Gibbs will not earn an automatic let-off after questioning on Thursday in the Indian capital over a match-fixing and betting scandal, police warned. ”If it is established that he did it, we cannot say he will be let off,” additional police commissioner Deependra Pathak said as the interrogation started.

South Africa captain Graeme Smith said on Friday that his team was one of the favourites to lift the Champions Trophy and that his players were raring to go. ”We are ranked second in the world and there is no shying away from the fact that we are one of the top teams,” Smith told reporters.

South African batsman Herschelle Gibbs is likely to be questioned by Indian police over a 2000 match-fixing scandal during the Champion’s Trophy which starts on Saturday, officials said. The 32-year-old, who has played 79 Tests, had admitted accepting money from disgraced former captain Hansie Cronje to score fewer than 20 runs against India.

The International Cricket Council warned the Indian cricket board on Wednesday that its refusal to sign a commercial document for global events could jeopardise its joint World Cup planned for 2011. The cash-rich Board of Control for Cricket in India is refusing to sign a Members’ Participation Agreement needed from national boards for finalising the ICC’s sponsorship deal.

The Indian media on Wednesday predicted the end of Sourav Ganguly’s cricket career after the former captain failed miserably in a trial one-day series. The left-hander, making a last-ditch attempt to regain his place in the Indian team, made 24 and three in the two matches he played in the domestic Challenger series in Chennai over the last three days.

West Indian great Clive Lloyd will mastermind the campaign of Brian Lara’s team during the Champions Trophy one-day tournament starting in India on Saturday. Lloyd, captain of World Cup-winning teams in 1975 and 1979, has been appointed a consultant to coach Bennett King and Lara during the 10-nation event, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said in a statement on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe are braced for their latest trial by fire in the heat of the Champions Trophy. Barring a miracle, their trip to India will be brief. The team, still sitting out Test matches, have to play the qualifying tournament with matches against Sri Lanka, West Indies and Bangladesh. Only two sides will make the latter stages.

India said on Sunday it would give Pakistan evidence found by its investigators linking Pakistan’s spy agency and an Islamist militant group to deadly bomb blasts in Mumbai that killed 186 people in July. The comments by India’s new foreign secretary came a day after police in Mumbai said they had solid proof that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency had masterminded the carnage.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left on Saturday on a four-day trip to South Africa aimed at enhancing cultural and economic ties between the two countries. Singh is scheduled to inaugurate the centenary celebrations of the launch of the Satyagraha peaceful resistance movement by Mahatma Gandhi during his trip.