Openings for three or four places in Indian team (6 July 1997)

Sunday, July 06, 1997

Openings for three or four places in Indian team

By Our Sports Reporter

It was not just another ordinary day at the nets for the Indian probables. After their gruelling work-outs and strenuous fielding practice the cricketers began their batting session. Most of the players seem to have realised that in less than 48 hours from now the names of the Indian cricketers to tour the emerald isle would be announced and thus special care was being taken to impress the selectors. All the five National selectors, Messrs Ramakant Desai, Shivlal Yadav, M.P.Pandove, Sambaran Bannerjee and Kishan Rungta were present at the conditioning camp earnestly watching the performance of the probables and with the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India Mr.J.Y.Lele arriving in the city on Sunday the stage would be set for selecting the squad on Monday morning.

A fair number of the cricketers select themselves automatically, thus the openings for just three or four cricketers hang in the balance. This has led to the usual speculation and the merits and demerits of the newcomers are being freely discussed. Mr. Ramakant Desai, Selector from the West Zone, said the strength of the squad would be decided when the committee met on July 7. A squad of 16 members is likely to be announced but as the tour includes both the one-dayers and Test matches some changes in the teams for the different variations of the game would have to be made.

Asked whether there would be a new vice-captain for the Indian team as speculated, Mr. Desai said the vice-captain would be chosen only after the team selection was made. Mr. Desai refused to comment, when asked, whether Rahul Dravid was being considered for the post of vicecaptain.

The Indian team is scheduled to leave for Sri Lanka from Chennai on July 12. Sachin Tendulkar, as mentioned earlier would be joining the team directly in Sri Lanka from London where he is to attend the captains' meeting.

Apart from the scrutiny by the selection panel, it was another routine day at the nets for the Indian probables. A notable absentee today was Saurav Ganguly who was suffering from a mild throat infection. Abey Kuruvilla made his appearance at the practice today and was seen bowling at the nets.

Another well known personality present during the session today was former Indian skipper Krish Srikkanth.

The dashing opener, who partnered Gavaskar successfully, has now started a sports promotion and entertainment company and is presently representing Thomson Consumer Electronics India as well as Parrys. `Cheeka' as Srikkanth is popularly called was warmly greeted by his former colleagues, Navjyot Sidhu and Mohammed Azharuddin, and he also spent some time with Tendulkar and some of the selectors.

That the conditioning exercises have benefited most of the players was evident when Azharuddin, one of the fittest players in the team, said his physical condition had improved considerably after attending the camp. Azhar, like Tendulkar and Ajay Jadeja, regaled the good crowd watching the practice session with some big hitting.