MATCH REPORTS
STAT SHEET
DIARY
OTHER SPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
PEOPLE
DEAR REDIFF

Dravid gets the axe; Kenya chop down India

After the defeat at the hands of Kenya in the final league game of the ongoing Coca Cola Cup at Gwalior on Thursday, the national selectors announced the side for the final to be played at the Eden Gardens, Calcutta, on Sunday May 31.

The side reads: Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Gagan Khoda, Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Robin Singh, S S Raul, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar, Nayan Mongia, Venkatesh Prasad, Rahul Sanghvi and Harbajan Singh.

Clearly, from the lineup, the Indians are planning to field the full strength XI for the final, after the humiliating defeat earlier that day against rookie Kenya.

Announcing the squad after consulting BCCI secretary J Y Lele on the phone, chairman of the national selectors Kishan Rungta said that Sanjay Susanta Raul, the only new face in the squad, was considererd keeping in mind his good performance recently in the domestic season, as also for his performances during the India A tour of Pakistan recently. The 22 year old from Orissa is a right hand bat who also bowls a bit of right arm off spin.

''We are trying to have an overall view revolving around quite a few players. The fringe players should have a feel of the pressures of international cricket, and it is not necessary that they will be part of the playing eleven,'' Rungta said, answering questions about why players like Sairaj Bahutule were picked for earlier games, but not played at all.

He said the selectors had tried to use this tournament for talent search ahead of next year's World Cup in England.

''The board is planning to hold a 21-day camp for 25 boys in the second half of August, tentatively, to build the team for the World Cup,'' he said, adding ''The venue will be most likely Bangalore.''

The chairman said the captain for the Independence Cup, to be played in Sri Lanka next month, would be selected on June five. The Indian squad for the tour is also expected to be announced later in the day.

About the exclusion of Paras Mhambrey and Harbhajan Singh from the eleven in today's match, Rungta said, ''They bowled badly in the last match and we wanted them to realise this.''

About the omission of Rahul Dravid from the side -- since the side for final is virtually the full Indian XI minus Javagal Srinath -- the chairman of selectors had no comment to make.

Earlier on Thursday, a thoroughly iconoclastic performance by a pumped up Kenyan side, coupled with a sense of complacency bordering on arrogance on the part of the Indians, saw the former side pull off its second famous victory in a brief career at the highest level of cricket.

India, throughout the ongoing tournament, has been making a practise of batting second, ostensibly to get practise chasing. The home team did it again in Gwalior, opting to field first on winning the toss, and allowing the Kenyans first use of a shirtfront track tailormade for strokeplay.

To compound the confusion, the far from 100% fit Indian players took the field in searing heat, the temperature in the shade being 49 degrees and in the centre, an incredible 57 degrees C.

And added to it by fielding an experimental lineup of bowlers, with Prasad being joined with the new ball by Robin Singh. And interestingly, in an obvious bid to allow the Kenyans to get runs -- it looked like India wanted a big score to "practise chasing" against -- the skipper did not bother to use his frontline bowlers in the slog, when the Kenyan batsmen were making merry with a profusion of sixes. Thus, Prasad whose six overs went for a mere 28 had four overs left at the end, Singh whose 5 went for 18 had five overs left of his quota, and Kumble who gave away a paltry 27 in 8 overs had two unutilised.

The Kenyans who, coming into the match, needed to ensure that they were not defeated by 123 runs (which would have put them behind Bangladesh on the run rate) ended up with a fine win, thanks to aggressive batting, fine bowling and fielding and a totally pumped up all round effort, which was in marked contrast to the Indians' disinterested, lethargic performance both on the field and with the bat.

This marked the Kenyans' finest hour, since its win over West Indies in the 1996 World Cup. Maurice Odumbe, who scored a barnstorming 83 including three consequtive sixes in the slog, came back to take three wickets for 14 runs and earned man of the match. Ravindu Shah began the fun with a scintillating 70 off 68 balls, while Hitesh Modi was another good contributor with a quick 51. The in-form Steve Tikolo proved a relative failure, getting himself run out just when he looked likely to share in the run feast.

For India, sadly, not one single player impressed with the bat. The top order played like they would rather be elsewhere, and it was left to newcomer Jatin Paranjpe, discard Rahul Dravid, keeper Nayan Mongia and Anil Kumble to save the home team from total humiliation. Interestingly, even Venkatesh Prasad -- one of nature's tailenders, with no history of playing decent knocks -- scored a quick 19 and looked in no trouble -- as damning an indictment of the attitude of the top order as any.

Postscript: Because of Pakistan's nuclear explosions and consequent focus on the news section, it was not possible for me to watch yesterday's game between Kenya and Bangladesh, and therefore I am not filing the report in normal fashion. The above comments are from a freelancer. We will be reporting on Sunday's final, but regular reportage and commentary in the old format will resume on our site only with the Independence Cup, in June, in Sri Lanka. Do bear with us.
Prem Panicker