Tendulkar, Abey Kuruvilla to miss Challenger series

MUMBAI, Oct 3: The overs-limited Challenger Series to be staged under lights at the Wankhede Stadium here from October 9, will be depleted ...

MUMBAI, Oct 3: The overs-limited Challenger Series to be staged under lights at the Wankhede Stadium here from October 9, will be depleted by the absence of the Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar and paceman Abey Kuruvilla.

While Tendulkar has opted out owing to personal reasons, Kuruvilla has been rested, informed Jayant Lele, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary and convenor of the selection committee at the Mumbai Cricket Association office this evening.

“Sachin had sought permission almost a month ago to skip the event owing to personal reasons. Kuruvilla has been rested as the selection committee didn’t want him to undergo the strain that the nation’s leading speedsters Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad underwent,” Lele explained.

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The selections, done by Messrs Ramakant Desai, Sambaran Banerjee, Shivlal Yadav and M P Pandove, on their last assignment together, had its quota of surprises. The exclusions of Test discards Navjot Singh Sidhu, Sanjay Manjrekar, Venkatapathy Raju, Aashish Kapoor, besides seasoned campaigners in the domestic circuit like Delhi skipper Ajay Sharma, Mumbai batsman Amol Muzumdar and Maharashtra skipper Shantanu Sugwekar. The only consolation for Muzumdar can be the fact that at least his name was considered for selection while the rest weren’t even discussed. The promising Haryana batsman Shafiq Khan, too, was overlooked.

Another interesting aspect was the appointment of Mohammad Azharuddin as the skipper of India A. The other players, mostly batsmen, whose names came up for discussion were: Ashu Dani (Delhi), Jai Prakash Yadav, Abbas Ali (both Madhya Pradesh) and Vadodara all-rounder Jacob Martin. Madan Lal and Anshuman Gaekwad would be the coaches of the teams for the four-day event.

The tournament schedule is: Oct 9: India v India A; Oct 10: India v India B; Oct 11: India A v India B; Oct 12: Final.

Teams

INDIA: Ajay Jadeja (captain), Saurav Ganguly, Gagan Khoda, Vinod Kambli, Rahul Dravid, Saba Karim (wicket-keeper), Rajesh Chauhan, Nilesh Kulkarni, Robin Singh, Debashish Mohanty, Harvinder Singh and Nikhil Chopra (Delhi).
INDIA A: Mohammad Azharuddin (captain), Hrishikesh Kanitkar (Maharashtra), Vangipurappu Venkata Sai Laxman, Noel David (both Hyderabad), Sridharan Sharath (Tamil Nadu), Rahul Sanghvi (Delhi), Nayan Mongia (Vadodara), Wasim Jaffer, Ajit Agarkar, Sairaj Bahutule (all Mumbai), Nikhil Haldipur (Bengal) and Doddanarsiah Ganesh (Karnataka).
INDIA B: Anil Kumble (captain), M S Krishna Prasad (wicket-keeper, Andhra Pradesh), Jatinder Singh (Haryana), Jatin Paranjpe (Mumbai), Pankaj Dharmani (Punjab), Sunil Joshi (Karnataka), Amay Khurasiya (Madhya Pradesh), Rohan Gavaskar (Bengal), Sanjay Raul (Orissa), Robin Singh (Delhi), Ananthapadmanabhan (Kerala) and Sukhbir Singh (Vadodara).