Date:10/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/10/stories/2008101054252200.htm

Sport - Cricket

Cheruvathur retained skipper

KOCHI: Sony Cheruvathur of State Bank of Travancore has been retained as the skipper of the Kerala Ranji Trophy cricket team. The young Raiphy Vincent Gomez has been brought in as the vice-captain.

The Kerala Cricket Association announced a list of 24 probables, including Indian star S.Sreesanth, at the end of the KCA Trophy, a series of three-day league matches at Angadipuram, on Thursday evening.

The probables will train in Bangalore from October 14 to 22 and the final 15 will be announced on October 22. The team will then proceed to Mysore and play two matches against the Karnataka Ranji team. Kerala opens its Ranji Plate Group campaign against Goa in Palakkad on November 3.

The KCA had earlier planned to send the probables to Sri Lanka but with the monsoon, the conditions in Sri Lanka are not favourable, said Mr Mathew.

“The facilities in Bangalore are good. Also, with a lot of negative news coming in the media, this is not the ideal time to send the players to Sri Lanka,” he explained.

The probables: Sony Cheruvathur (captain), Raiphy Vincent Gomez (vice-captain), Sebastian Antony, Sambasiva Sharma, V. A. Jagadeesh, Sreekumar Nair, S. Sreesanth, Rohan Prem, Robert Fernandez, K. J. Rakesh, Vinan G. Nair, S. Aneesh, P. Prasanth, C. M. Thejus, Tinu Yohanan, Prasanth Chandran, Prasanth Parameswaran, P. Niyaz, C. P. Shahid, Vilas N. Kutty, P. V. Manikandan, Anilkumar, Krishna Chandran, Ananda Kuttan. — Principal Correspondent