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Team selection may be advanced

The Board of Control for Cricket in India, in order to placate the Indian Olympic Association, is likely to advance the selection of the teams for the Sahara Cup and Commonwealth Games by two days.

BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur and executive secretary Sharad Diwadkar today said the teams may be selected on Wednesday, September 2, instead of September 4 at Madras.

The BCCI, in its month-long war of words with the IOA, had refused to shift the dates emphasising that such a step would interfere with the ongoing conditioning camp at Madras.

But IOA president Suresh Kalmadi and secretary Randhir Singh warned against the non-acceptance of India's entry in the inaugural one-day Commonwealth event at Kuala Lumpur. According to them the last date for entries was August 11.

The BCCI may not be prepared to concede the second round to the IOA, after agreeing to send the team under the association's auspices instead of its parent body, the International Cricket Council. But the BCCI felt that two more days would give everybody more breathing time for making travel arrangements. Raj Singh says the Board now wants to select the team as early as possible.

BCCI is set to pick two teams for the Sahara Cup at Toronto against Pakistan and the Commonwealth Games in an attempt to end the unsavoury episode which started with the clash of dates and an earlier statement of sending a second string team to Kuala Lumpur. The IOA wants Sachin Tendulkar in the Commonwealth side.

UNI