Selectors To Pick Indian ODI Side On January 14 (11 Jan 1997)

11 January 1997

Selectors to pick Indian ODI side on January 14

The national cricket selectors - namely Ramakanth Desai, Shivlal Yadav, Sambaran Bannerjee, Kishen Rungta and M Pandove - will meet in Bombay on January 14 to select the Indian cricket team for the triangular one day cricket series to be played in South Africa immediately after the third Test later this month, and also for the two one-day games in Zimbabwe following on that.

Indications are that at least three players - Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh and Sunil Joshi - will be flown out to South Africa for the one dayers, while Vinod Kambli also looks an increasingly sure bet. However, there is yet no indication which of the players now in the touring party in South Africa will be recalled to make way for these players.

Chairman of the national selectors Ramakant Desai, meanwhile, indicated that the selectors would pick a different side to tour the West Indies beginning late February for a five Test series to be followed by a one-day series. "In view of the performance of the Indian team now in South Africa, such an exercise becomes necessary," Desai said.

Desai, however, was unwilling to take any responsibility for the performance of the Indian team in the first two Tests in South Africa. "When the Indian team won both the Titan Cup and the McDowell Test series at home, the players were praised. And when the team loses in South Africa, the selectors are blamed," Desai said.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India, meanwhile, indicated that there is some rethink of the team`s schedule, and that attempts are being made to fly the players home for a few days after the two one day matches in Zimbabwe.

As it stands, the schedule has India playing one more Test and a one day triangular series in South Africa, then flying to Zimbabwe for two more one day games (despite the fact that Zimbabwe is one of the three nations that, with S`Africa and India, will contest the triangular in South Africa), then on to Bermuda for some exhibition games, and from there directly to the West Indies, where it will play a three day game and go directly into the first two Tests.

The scheduling has come in for increasing criticism, on two grounds. One, that it does not give the players any breathing space between two tough tours of South Africa and the West Indies and two, that it does not provide for enough practise games in the Caribbean to allow the Indian players to acclimatise before taking on the West Indies at home.

The BCCI is now likely, insiders indicate, to send an India A team to Bermuda while the senior team flies home for about 10 days after the Zimbabwe games, and before the Windies tour begins.

Besides providing some much-needed rest to the senior team, which has been in continuous action since the Wills World Cup in February last year, this will also allow the Indian hopefuls a chance to play on foreign soil, and get used to international match situations without the attendant pressures.

An official announcement is believed to be imminent.

Source :: Rediff On The NeT (https://www.rediff.co.in)