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Tendulkar retained skipper

The national selection committee on Monday named Sachin Tendulkar to lead India in the upcoming series against Sri Lanka, beginning November 19.

The Indian team for the Test series will be picked later this week.

Interestingly, the national selectors spent just 10 minutes closetted together before coming out of the conference hall at the Cricket Club of India, Bombay, to announce Tendulkar's retention in the top slot.

"There was not much discussion about the continuation of Tendulkar," said Board secretary J Y Lele, who chaired the meeting. "His term had expired in September, and that is why it was necessary for the selectors to meet and reconfirm him."

Interestingly, however, this time round the selectors have named Tendulkar only for the one series against Lanka. Given that India will, immediately thereafter, play a quadrangular in Sharjah, a triangular in India and then another one in Bangladesh with a series against the visiting Australians to follow, this short term appointment is seen as a means of keeping the India captain in a state of animated suspense.

It will be recalled that there has been much talk of moves afoot, within both the board and the selection committee, to remove Tendulkar from the captaincy. The perception thus is that while the selectors don't dare move against him given the immediacy of the fine performances in Toronto and Pakistan, they are prepared to bide their time and wait till the Lankan series is over -- a mauling of the kind India received at Lanka's hand during the tour to the island nation earlier this year could well provide them with the excuse they need.

"The decision to retain Tendulkar was unanimous, and the selectors arrived at it within 10 minutes," was all the comment Ramakant Desai, chairman of selectors, would make on the subject.

Meanwhile, the selectors also picked a Board President's XI to take on Sri Lanka in the warm up game ahead of the first Test between the two countries beginning November 19.

The lineup is as follows: Venkatesh Prasad (captain), Wasim Jaffar, Gagan Khoda, V V S Laxman, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Sridharan Sharat, Amol Majumdar, M S K Prasad, Sairaj Bahutule, Rahul Singhvi, Debashish Mohanty, Harvinder Singh, Pankaj Dharmani and Nikhil Chopra.

The lineup provides some items of interest. Prasad is obviously being given an opportunity to test himself against the Lankans, preparatory to taking his place again at the forefront of the Indian attack. Equally interestingly, Srinath is not being exposed to the Lankan batsmen ahead of the first Test.

The performances that will be watched with interest are those of Wasim Jaffer, who is increasingly being seen as a probable answer to India's opening problems; V V S Laxman, who is usable both at the top of the order and in the middle; Debashish Mohanty and Harvinder Singh, both of whom will be seen as the backup possibles for the Srinath-Prasad-Kuruvilla combination, and Hrishikesh Kanitkar, who in the opinion of the Indian skipper is one answer to India's long range problem of finding a quality all-rounder.