Sporting Digest: Cricket

THE West Indies Board of Control gave the go-ahead yesterday to its team's tour of India after a week's delay because of the pneumonic plague epidemic. The original itinerary has been revised, reducing the number of one-day internationals from six to five, but all other matches remain unaltered.

WEST INDIES' TOUR (of India) Revised itinerary: 14 Oct: One-day warm-up match (Chandigarh); 17: First one-day international (Faridabad); 20: Second one-day international (Bombay); 7 Nov: Third one-day international (Vishakhapatnam); 9: Fourth one-day international (Cuttack); 11: Fifth one-day international (Jaipur); 13-15: Board President's XI (Bangalore); 18-22: First Test (Bombay); 25-27: Bombay (Ranji Trophy champions) (Calicut); 1-5 Dec: Second Test (Nagpur); 10-14: Third Test (Chandigarh). Triangular one-day series: 23 Oct: India v West Indies (Madras); 26: West Indies v New Zealand (Goa); 28: India v New Zealand (Baroda); 30: India v West Indies (Kanpur); 1 Nov: West Indies v New Zealand (Guwahati); 3: India v New Zealand (Delhi); 5: Day/night final (Calcutta).

SOMERSET have signed the Yorkshire off-spinner Jeremy Batty on a two-year contract.

SURREY have signed the 25-year-old batsman and leg-spinner Nadeem Shahid from Essex on a two-year contract.