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Srinath to replace Nehra

In a sudden about-turn, the Board of Control for Cricket in India decided to rush speedster Javagal Srinath to Colombo to replace an injured Ashish Nehra, who has been ruled out of the Champions Trophy final on Sunday.

Hours after ruling Srinath out, newly-elected BCCI secretary S K Nair said in a statement that the board had received a request from the team management to replace Nehra with Srinath, who is playing county cricket in England, and it has been agreed to.

Curiously, Nair had earlier claimed that team manager K M Ramprasad had informed the board that a replacement for Nehra was not needed.

In the statement, however, Nair said after getting the approval of the selection committee, which met in Mumbai earlier in the day for the first time after the BCCI Annual General Meeting, the board sought the necessary permission from the ICC, which gave its consent.

Nair then spoke to Srinath who also agreed to play in the final.

Nair later clarified that when he spoke on the matter in the morning, there was no such request from the team management.

Nehra suffered the injury on his bowling hand during the semi-final against South Africa on Wednesday when he attempted to run-out Jacques Kallis off his own bowling. He split the webbing between the index finger and middle finger on his left hand and it required five stitches.

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