COLOMBO, July 28: The Indian team management had asked for Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka.According to sources close to the team, who spoke to The Indian Express on condition of anonymity, the team management is unhappy that the chairman of the national selection committee, Ramakant Desai, told the media back home that the replacements have been picked in consent with the team management.The truth, the sources said, is that the team management had asked for Laxman but were given Gagan Khoda.It's now an open secret how Khoda gains officials patronage over glaringly more deserving cases.The selection committee seems to have changed their mind since they picked the Indian team for the Pepsi Asia Cup. At that point of time it was virtually common knowledge that Nayan Mongia and Rajesh Chauhan were to replace Saba Karim and Noel David respectively and Nilesh Kulkarni with Venkatapathy Raju and Debashish Mohanty with Harvinder Singh.However, with Kulkarni doing relatively well in the one chance that the got in the Asia Cup and Mohanty not getting a look in any of the games, the selectors decided to retain them in the squad.
