Date:24/02/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/02/24/stories/2006022405951800.htm

Sport - Badminton

Chetan replaces Arvind Bhat

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI : The suspense over the composition of the Indian men's badminton team for the next month's Commonwealth Games at Melbourne ended on Thursday with Chetan Anand replacing Arvind Bhat in the originally named five-member squad.

The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee accepted the request for the change of name made by the Indian Olympic Association after the Badminton Association of India approached it on February 20. The five-member women's team was announced in Jaipur last week.

Initially, the BAI had cleared a six-member squad that included both Chetan and Bhat.

However, when the IOA asked BAI to prune the number to five before the deadline in the second week of February, the selectors decided to leave out Chetan.

Going by the latest world rankings, Chetan heads the Indian list by occupying the 26th spot, ahead of Bhat (37) and National champion Anup Sridhar (59).

Since August 2005, Chetan had won the Sri Lankan Satellite, the Welsh International and Irish International and finished runner-up in the Iceland Express International to raise his world ranking. Recently, Chetan underwent training under Denmark's Morten Frost and played in the Danish league.

The team:

Men: Chetan Anand, Anup Sridhar, Rupesh Kumar, Sanave Thomas and V. Diju.

Women: Aparna Popat, Saina Nehwal, Trupti Murgunde, G. Jwala and Shruti Kurian.

Coaches: Messrs Vimal Kumar and Hadi Sugianto. Manager: Mr. P. Chaudhary.