The Hindu : Robin Singh likely to lead team for Champions Trophy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 23, 2002

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Robin Singh likely to lead team for Champions Trophy

New Delhi Aug. 22. With top Indian cricketers refusing to sign the sponsorship contract, the veteran all-rounder, Robin Singh, is likely to lead the second-string team for next month's Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka.

Besides Singh, 13 of the 25 probables, the list of whom was drawn up by the national selection committee, have confirmed participation for the tournament, which has run into rough weather following the International Cricket Council's controversial sponsorship policy.

While three players besides Singh — Sadagopan Ramesh, Hemang Badani and L. Balaji — have confirmed their participation from Tamil Nadu, ten players from other States have given their verbal consent, sources in the Board of Control for Cricket in India here said.

The Board, which had withheld the announcement of the list fearing pressure from senior players, had asked the respective associations to get the confirmation of the selected probables. ``Only after the probables confirm their availability, the contract forms would be sent to them,'' the sources said.

The list of probables is: S. Ramesh, Gautam Gambhir, Gagan Khoda, Daniel Manohar, Connor Williams, Hemang Badani, Rohan Gavaskar, Jacob Martin, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, J. P. Yadav, Vijay Bharadwaj, Rakesh Patel, Sarandeep Singh, Murali Karthik, Ramesh Powar, Sairaj Bahutule, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Robin Singh, Irfan Pathan, L. Balaji, Debashish Mohanty, Deep Dasgupta and M.S.K. Prasad.

The sources said that ten players who had given their verbal consent to their respective associations were Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad (Karnataka), Gambhir and Sarandeep Singh (Delhi), Dasgupta and Gavaskar (West Bengal), Mohanty (Orissa), M.S.K. Prasad (Andhra Pradesh) and Manohar (Hyderabad).

Srinath, who recently announced his retirement from Test cricket, and Venkatesh Prasad could, however, make themselves unavailable to express their solidarity with the current Indian team, now in England.

Although the Board had begun the process of selecting an alternative team, the doors were still open for the top cricketers if they changed their mind and signed the contract. The Board's Working Committee in Bangalore had taken the decision to first obtain an oral confirmation from the probable players before considering them for the final squad. ``It was necessary to obtain an oral confirmation because the BCCI does not want to get into any tricky situation later.''

The Board was confident of forming a 14-member squad for the next month's mini World Cup even if some of the probables withdrew. An announcement on the final squad is expected in the next three days after the selectors get the necessary feedback from the associations. — PTI

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