Who'll play Australia, Mumbai or President's XI?

While the Australian board are concerned about the state of the new stadium in Hyderabad, where the team will play its only warm-up game of the Indian tour, confusion abounds about their opponents. The BCCI announced that Australia will play the Board President's XI, but the Mumbai Cricket Association insist that the game was awarded to them. The final decision will be known tomorrow.

SK Nair, the secretary of the board, confirmed that the selectors had put forward a proposal to allow the BP XI side to play against Australia. Mumbai will be playing against Rest of India in the Irani Trophy and the selectors thought that it would be a good idea to give more players a chance before selecting the Test squad. "It was originally Mumbai," Nair told Wisden Cricinfo, "but the suggestion by the selection committee was also considered. There were a few players who missed out of the Rest of India side and so the selectors wanted to give them a chance. A decision will be taken tomorrow."

On the other end of the see-saw, Lalchand Rajput, the secretary of the MCA, insisted that Mumbai will play the game. Rajput said: "We received the letter about 15 days ago and the match between Mumbai and Australia is going to be a benefit match for Vijay Mohanraj, the former Hyderabad cricketer. We have even got letters from the Hyderabad Cricket Association and PMG, who are sponsoring the game."

There are valid arguments for the BP XI to play the game. Players like Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, who have been rusty of late, can use it as a chance to get back into the groove. Also Zaheer Khan and Lakshmipathy Balaji can return after recovering from injuries. Without this opportunity, the Indian team will go into the first Test at Bangalore without any match practice.

The bottom line, though, is that Mumbai were promised the game by virtue of being the Ranji Trophy champions.