ibnlive.com
Posted Nov 30, 2006 at 10:58 | Updated Nov 30, 2006 at 13:15
New Delhi: While misery continues to mount on the Indian team for obvious reasons, the BCCI’s selection committee on Thursday has more than a task of picking a team of 16 for the Test series in South Africa, hoping desperately that the embarrassments come to a halt.
It was a story etched in the minds of every single person watching the fourth ODI between India and South Africa which unfolded, in fact recurred, to inflict further pain.
On Thursday, BCCI President Sharad Pawar met the selection panel chaired by ‘Colonel’ Dilip Vengsarkar to seek answers, if any, for the repeated agonies hours before the team selection takes place for the three-match Test series.
Pawar apparently cleared the air over the unexpected furore created by the Greg Chappell-MP spat. Pawar What happened in Parliament should have no bearing on the incidents taking place in Protea land, he is expected to have said.
But when the selection committee meets at the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) office at Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium in Delhi later on, all of that will be forgotten.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has been in the news for all the right reasons, at least this time around. After a series of controversies that led to the temperamental batsman’s ouster, Sourav, who resigned from captaincy of his Ranji team Bengal on Wednesday may be left with a beaming smirk on his face.
The latest debacle at Port Elizabeth by 80 runs means India are down 0-3 with no posssiblity of coming back in the ODI series, which means the younger players in the side may well bear the brunt with their places being traded for relatively experienced players waiting in the wings.
Among the contenders, especially for the third opener’s slot are Delhi’s Gautam Gambhir and his teammate Akash Chopra. It was learnt that Gambhir would get the nod ahead of his colleague, but after another disappointment due to lack of technique by Team India, the defensive Akash Chopra is now the frontrunner as Gambhir may be overlooked for his flashy nature of batting.
Other probables include Punjab paceman VRV Singh and Tamil Nadu medium pacer Yo Mahesh, one of whom is expected to take the place of left-arm Baroda pacer Irfan Pathan. But with Pathan’s decent performance with the ball and a gritty knock of 47 not out on Wednesday, he may be retained.
Tamil Nadu skipper S Badrinath is also among the probables to be picked to boost the fickle middle order with even the experienced players in the side not among the runs.
VVS Laxman was called up to replace captain Rahul Dravid, with an inopportune injury getting the better of him, forcing him out of the ODI series and casting a cloud over his timely return for the first Test.
Coach Greg Chappell’s brand of process, excellence and vision has been dealt a major blow as India’s performance since their downfall earlier this year indicates that they have only bettered Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in terms of success.
Naturally, with the talent pool drying up all too soon as the World Cup in West Indies nears, the team management was left with no choice but to express the need of tried and tested players in the ranks.
Sourav Ganguly played his last Test against Pakistan in Karachi earlier this year.
The ex-Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly has made a comeback in the Test team after he was unceremoniously dropped for ten months.

Ganguly is expected to play the first test match of the series against South Africa commencing on December 15.

Chairman of selection pane for the Indian team Dilip Vengsarkar said that the team batting had failed in one-dayers in the current series, so there is need to bring back experienced players.

VVS Laxman has been appointed as vice-captain of the test team.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sharad Pawar cleared the air over Greg Chappell-MP dispute by saying that "What happened in Parliament should have no bearing on the incidents taking place in Protea land,".

Ganguly last played for the team against Pakistan in a test match in Karachi earlier this year.

The sixteen member-team is as follows:

Rahul Dravid (Captain), VVS Laxman (Vice-captain), Wasim Jaffer, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Wicketkeeper), Dinesh Kaarthick, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Munaf Patel, Irfan Pathan, VRV Singh, Zaheer Khan and S. Sreesanth.