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Srinath close to full fitness

Frontline strike bowler Javagal Srinath said in Calcutta that he was sure of regaining full fitness in the coming fortnight, and making an immediate comeback to the national squad.

"I am doing well with fitness practise," said Srinath who was in Calcutta to, of all things, present prizes to the winners of the Eleventh Telegraph Chess Tournament.

Commenting on his recent spate of injuries, an annoyed Srinath said, "I am fed up with such questions, all I can say is I am doing well now and should be fully fit within a fortnight, three weeks maximum."

Twenty year old pace bowler Annetighe Suresh Asanka Perera (Suresh Perera, in short) has been picked for the Sri Lankan squad to tour New Zealand for a three Test series beginning May 27.

The youngster, interestingly, is a product of the MRF Pace Foundation. More to the point, Perera is the ninth pace bowler out of 16 Sri Lankans to have been trained at the Madras-based academy.

"I spotted him during a visit to Colombo last November, and picked him to train under chief coach Dennis Lillee," says the foundation's head coach T A Shekhar. "He was short-listed from a list of talented bowlers, and picked for coaching as it was felt he had the potential to play a higher grade of cricket."

Perera, thus, trained at the academy from November on, and underwent further training under Lillee during the latter's visit to the foundation in March-April.

Rahul Dravid is understandably bucked at being included in the Indian side for the upcoming tri-nation tournament against Kenya and Bangladesh beginning May 14.

"I'll do my best for the team and the country," said Dravid, in Mysore to attend a private function. "With Sachin Tendulkar being rested for the initial games, I think there is more responsibility on me now, and I hope to do my very best in the upcoming games."

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has not yet found any resolution to the Sahara Cup-Commonwealth Games tangle. (For fuller details, read earlier story: One team, two tournaments, and a right royal mess!)

Cricket is being introduced as a medal sport for the first time, in the Commonwealth Games scheduled from September 11 to 21 at Kuala Lumpur. The dates, however, coincide with those for the Sahara Cup five-ODI series against Pakistan.

The BCCI had assured the Games organisers and also the Indian Olympic Association that it would send its best team -- an assurance it now finds impossible to keep.

When the idea of cricket in the Games was first mooted, England -- the originator of the Commonwealth Games -- refused but the other Commonwealth members were more than keen to make it a success. Thus, it was decided to send the best possible teams for this event.

"The boards of India and Pakistan are both facing the same problem, of dates clashing," said Board secretary J Y Lele without, however, elaborating.

16 teams are scheduled to take part in the cricket event of the Games. India, Australia, Canada and Guyana are scheduled in Group B. And the problem with sending an 'A' team is that as per tournament rules, only the top team in each group will qualify for the semifinals -- and an India A outfit is presumed to have little or no chance of qualifying in a group headed by the strong Australians.

The problem of less than competent umpires standing in international games conducted on Indian soil has been a constant for quite some time now.

Long time cricket watchers will recall the umpiring fiascos during the Titan Cup, Independence Cup and, more recently, during the three-game series against Sri Lanka when a certain umpire, under pressure, raised a finger to declare a batsman out, then comically changed his mind and used that same finger to scratch his head, making himself the laughing stock of the cricketing world.

Indications are that Indian cricket will face more of the same, during the upcoming triangular series between India, Kenya and Bangladesh -- for the BCCI has decided that no less than six umpires will make their international debuts during the contest.

The six are: Rajan Seth of Delhi, Dr B K Sadashiv of Karnataka, C R Mohite of Baroda, K N Raghavan of Cochin, A Bhattacharjee of Calcutta and Sudhir Asnani of Indore.

Interestingly, none of the really qualified Indian umpires -- from S Venkatraghavan through to Maninder Singh -- figure in the BCCI list of officials to do duty during the tournament.