The Hindu : Laxman to lead against West Indies `A'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 16, 2002

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Sport - Cricket

Laxman to lead against West Indies `A'

By G. Viswanath

Wasim Jaffer, Parthiv Patel, Shiv Sunder Das and Sanjay Bangar who have joined the Indian team for the rest of the England tour snapped in a relaxed mood at Hotel Crowne Plaza, London on Monday. — Photo: N. Sridharan

Arundel July 15. The big guns of Indian cricket that did not come out blazing, but fired individually at different stages of the 15-day NatWest Trophy III tri-series have decided to stay away from the routine for a week.

India captain Sourav Ganguly, his deputy Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar will not be part of the touring party in Arundel, where the Indians begin their first class part of the tour of England with a three-day match against West Indies `A' on Tuesday. In the absence of the three, V.V.S. Laxman, who played in one match of the NatWest series, will lead a select Indian XI. Despite the withdrawal of the big three, Laxman will have at his disposal sufficient injury-free players to choose from.

The four players who joined the team a day before the final, openers Wasim Jaffer, Shiv Sundar Das, Parthiv Patel (wicketkeeper) and Sanjay Bangar (they had a net session with John Wright at Lord's on Monday morning) should get a first taste of the conditions here in the match against West Indies `A'.

And with the chances of Mohammad Kaif, who made a match-winning undefeated 87 in the NatWest Trophy final, being retained for the full tour being very strong, he should be in Laxman's and the tour selectors' list for a place in the middle order. In fact, he should be an automatic choice. But it all depends on the course of action the national selectors choose when they meet on Tuesday.

A fracture to Yuveraj Singh's right hand little finger came as bad news immediately after the good news of the Board's decision to convene a selection committee meeting to consider retaining Kaif, Yuveraj and Dinesh Mongia for the remaining part of the tour. The injury to Yuveraj straightaway has solved a tricky problem for the selectors.

That he has won a major tournament in England should put the winning captain Ganguly in a much stronger position to recommend the players he wants and get them, too. It appears that the tour selectors clearly favour the retention of Kaif. They also want an additional seamer, preferably L. Balaji who was the frontline bowler for India `A' during its recent visit to South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Obviously, the tour selectors have realised that in order to have the likes of Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Ajit Agarkar in good shape for the Test matches, they need a fifth seamer apart from Tinu Yohannan for the almost half a dozen first class games the Indians will be playing. All the three, Zaheer Khan, Nehra and Agarkar have a history of injuries laying them low in the last two or three years. They also do not want the three to become burnout cases before next year's World Cup in South Africa. India has winter commitments to be fulfilled against the West Indies at home followed by a 60-day tour of New Zealand before the World Cup.

Ganguly's players will have barely a couple of days rest after this tour ends on September 9, because they will be flying to Colombo to take part in the ICC Knockout event there, which means that the Indians would have spent about 240 days overseas after the home series against Zimbabwe last March.

So in view of the World Cup, the selectors might be compelled to consider resting players in the next seven months. The poorly planned NatWest Trophy and the surfeit of international matches some of the teams are playing these days will be discussed by the eight captains at the annual captains meeting convened by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Ganguly said, "There will be many issues, but obviously captains are going to talk on the heavy schedule teams are playing these days."

The Indian captain had a commitment at the ICC office at Lord's he could not avoid and having spent a good month since arriving here on June 17, Ganguly needs a break to free his mind from serious business. Hayfever kept him out of India's first tour match against Sussex at Hove, but thereafter he has played all the matches.

India's second first class match is against Hampshire at West End, Southampton on July 22, before which Tendulkar and Dravid would get sufficient time to train at the gymnasium and fully recover from niggles they suffered during the NatWest series.

It has been hard on Dravid, who donned the big gloves, too. He had to sit out the third league match against England at the Oval. Tendulkar, troubled by a pulled hamstring, did not field against Sri Lanka at Bristol. Nobody would grudge the three, who form the backbone of the Indian batting, taking a break. They deserve it, probably for good reasons too. A ready and handy reason is that the Indians have a heavy schedule in the next 55 days of the English summer when they will play four Test matches and many three and four-day games.

Being seniors in the team all the three are entitled to certain privileges the juniors do not enjoy. A fourth member of the team, Anil Kumble will be travelling to Arundel only to get the benefit of treatment and monitoring of his calf muscle stress by the team's support system in physio Andrew Leipus and physical trainer Adrian Le Roux. He will not be considered for selection for the match against West Indies `A'.

"Both Kumble and Dravid will be joining the team in Arundel on Tuesday, but they will not play," said Mr. Ranga Reddy, who has replaced Mr. Rajeev Shukla as manager for the second part of the tour.

Virender Sehwag is also under the weather. He has a sore knee that he aggravated in the NatWest final.

There is a sense of history about Arundel and playing cricket on the premises of the castle. There were days when visiting teams landed in London in the first half of the summer, practised for a couple of days and then hopped into Arundel for the tour opener against the Duke of Norfolk XI. Teams from the sub-continent were normally attired in woollens, rubbed their hands standing in the slips and dropped catches. The cold was so biting. Times have changed since.

A visit to Arundel, not far from London, is looked upon with interest, though history may not be an interesting subject for cricketers. Last summer the Australians played a three-day match at the Arundel Castle here in June and beat Marylebone Cricket Club. Australia made 396 and 294 with Simon Katich making 168 and Steve Waugh 105. In reply MCC made 124 and 280.

The West Indies `A' team has been here since the middle of June for a six-week tour to play six first class matches and a few one-day matches against County sides. Opener Chris Gayle, fast bowler Marlon Black and allrounder Ryan Hinds, who played against India recently, are in the team led by Daren Ganga.

The team began the tour winning a match against British Universities at Oxford, but thereafter lost to Sri Lanka, Derbyshire and Kent. In recent first class matches the West Indies struck form with Ganga making 50 and 139 against Lancashire. Devon Smith made 181, Gayle 50 and 94 and Runako Morton 53. One of the bowlers in the side is Reon King, who has taken 44 wickets in 14 Tests and 73 in 48 one-day Internationals.

The teams: India (from): V.V.S. Laxman (Captain), Wasim Jaffer, Shiv Sundar Das, Parthiv Patel, Sanjay Bangar, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Ajay Ratra, Tinu Yohannan, Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Kaif and Dinesh Mongia.

West Indies `A' (from): Darren Ganga (Captain),Chris Gayle, Ryan Hinds, Sulieman Benn, Tino Best, Marlon Black, Dwayne Bravo, Gareth Breese, Keith Hibbert, Jermaine Lawson, Ronako Morton, Donovan Pagon, Darren Powell, Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith and Reon King.

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