Indian team-members arrive in Chennai

CHENNAI, JULY 15. ``It is not going to be easy'', said Mr. Anant Mate, Manager of the Sri Lanka bound Indian cricket team on India's prospects in the forthcoming triangular and Test series.

The Maharashtra Cricket Association, Joint Secretary, Mr. Mate, for whom this is the second stint as Manager, was among the first to arrive in the city on Sunday. He said the Sri Lankans would be a tough team, so will be the New Zealanders as they had beaten us (Indians) in the final of the ICC tournament in Nairobi last year.

Meanwhile the other members of the team, which is to leave for Colombo on Monday afternoon arrived in trickles, to the five-star hotel close to the airport, from various cities.

Vice captain Rahul Dravid trooped in early, followed by Zaheer Khan and Debashis Mohanty. Soon V.V.S. Laxman followed. By late evening the North Zone players, Harbhajan Singh, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Ashish Nehra, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Sanghvi arrived in a bunch.

Coach John Wright came from Mumbai along with Amay Khurasia and Yuveraj Singh while Ajit Agarkar, Sameer Dighe were expected later in the night, as was skipper Sourav Ganguly from Kolkata. Local lad Hemang Badani has also joined his team-mates.

The hotel was not abuzz with activity in expectation of the cricketers arrival. Laxman arrived virtually unnoticed and surprisingly even the media presence was minimal.

- Our Sports Reporter

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