Azhar, Mongia picked to play under Ganguly

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, FEB. 3. The National senior selection committee set up an intriguing experiment, naming India vice-captain Sourav Ganguly as captain of the India-A team and then picking former skipper Mohammed Azharuddin to play under him. The selection committee met on Thursday to select those players it considers to be the cream for the three squads - India seniors, India-A and India-B - who will play each other for the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy to be held in Ahmedabad from February 10 to 13.

Current India captain Sachin Tendulkar, who brought back a defeated and dispirited team from Australia, will lead India seniors, while Ajay Jadeja is back in the reckoning as captain of the India-B squad. The India-B squad also has five members of the India under-19 team which won the World Youth Cup in Sri Lanka.

Five players who were part of the Indian squad on the disastrous tour to Australia - Ajit Agarkar, Devang Gandhi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, MSK Prasad and Vijay Bharadwaj - have been put out in the cold and do not feature in any of the three teams. From the rest of the team just back from Australia, 11 find their way into the India seniors team. Only Ganguly and Debasis Mohanty have been placed in the other teams.

It has been informed to the Board that Tamil Nadu's Sadagopan Ramesh's thumb fracture has not healed completely and hence does not figure in any of the teams.

Mohanty forms part of India-B but it is the choice of both Mohammed Azharuddin and wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia to play under Ganguly that gives an idea of the kind of insurance the selectors are looking for in the run-up to the home series against South Africa.

A little over a month ago, the Indian team management in Australia expressed its objection at the selection of Azharuddin as a replacement on the Indian team for the tri-series which followed the Test series.

Recent comments by coach Kapil Dev that Azharuddin was not popular among his teammates have rekindled an old feud between the two former stalwarts and also reaffirmed suspicions that the campaign to reinstate Azharuddin in the Indian team is, at the moment, anathema to both the current captain and coach. Mongia's case is somewhat similar as he was flown out to Australia as MSK Prasad's replacement and then unceremoniously sent back, with reports that the veteran keeper had been isolated and ignored by his former teammates.

Selecting both Azharuddin and Mongia to play under Ganguly, who made his international debut under Azharuddin, is the selection panel's idea of giving Ganguly's leadership skills - both on the field and in the dressing room - a thorough workout. The possibility of Ganguly opting out of the Challenger Trophy to recuperate from the trials of the Australian tour, may botch these plans; but that will leave the selectors with the job of keeping Azharuddin as India-A captain and pitting him against Tendulkar.

To the surprise of all parties involved, the selection meeting took close to three hours forcing chairman Chandu Borde to excuse himself from briefing the press because he had to catch a train to his home in Pune. The axing of Gandhi and the selection of Kambli were said to be the main topics of debate during the meeting.

BCCI secretary J.Y. Lele, who briefed the press, said that the Board was awaiting word from team physiotherapist Andrew Leipus on the current fitness levels of all players who have just returned from Australia. Lele was careful to point out that the axing of Agarkar, Gandhi, Bhardwaj, Kanitkar and Prasad was done taking their performances into account and not on the basis of fitness.

The two players said to be injured on their return from Australia - Jacob Martin and VVS Laxman - are expected to be fit within eight days in time for the Challenger, according to a letter to the Board from Australian orthopaedic surgeon Dr. J.L. Johnston.

For the rest of the selections, the committee has taken into account recent performances in the Wills and Deodhar Trophy, rewarding the consistency of Karnataka opener J. Arun Kumar and Tamil Nadu's S. Sarath and the all-round performance of Sanjay Bangar and investing faith in the left-arm spin of Murali Kartik.

The mainstays of the World Youth Cup winning India under-19 team - skipper Mohammed Kaif, wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra, all-rounders Yuveraj Singh and Reetinder Sodhi, and Anup Dave find themselves in the India-B team. Their teammate Neeraj Patel of Gujarat is the only colt on the India-A team.

National coach Kapil Dev will be in charge of the India seniors while Roger Binny will manage the India-A and India-B teams.

The teams:

India (seniors): Sachin Tendulkar (captain/Mum), VVS Laxman (Hyd), Rahul Dravid (Kar), Jacob Martin (Bar), Robin Singh (TN), Anil Kumble (Kar), Nikhil Chopra (Del), Sunil Joshi (Kar), Samir Dighe (wk/Mum), Javagal Srinath (Kar), Venkatesh Prasad (Kar) and Vinod Kambli (Mum).

India-A: Sourav Ganguly (captain/Ben), Mohammed Azharuddin (Hyd), Nayan Mongia (wk/Bar), J. Arun Kumar (Kar), S. Sharath (TN), Virender Sehwag (Del), Murali Kartik (Rly), Amit Bhandari (Del), Sanjay Bangar (Rly), T. Kumaran (TN), Aashish Kapoor (TN) and Neeraj Patel (Guj).

India-B: Ajay Jadeja (captain), Nikhil Haldipur (Ben), Yuveraj Singh (Pun), Mohammed Kaif (UP), Jai Prakash Yadav (MP), Devendra Bundela (MP), Reetinder Sodhi (Pun), Dodda Ganesh (Kar), Rashmi Ranjan Parida (Ori), Ajay Ratra (wk/Har), Debashish Mohanty (Ori) and Anup Dave (Raj).

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