Selection meeting to choose Test team put off

MUMBAI: The meeting of the senior selection panel headed by Dilip Vengsarkar, to choose the Indian team for the first Test against South Africa, has been put off from March 9 to March 17, Cricket Board sources said on Thursday.
    
The meeting will now be held in Bangalore instead of Mumbai.
    
"The meeting has been postponed to March 17 and will now be held at Bangalore. The selectors wanted to see performance of players in (some matches of) the Deodhar Trophy before choosing the team," BCCI sources said.
    
Originally, the meeting was to be held in Mumbai but has been moved to Bangalore, one of the three venues to host matches in the Deodhar Trophy inter-zonal limited overs tournament from March 14 to 26.
    
The first India-South Africa Test is scheduled at Chennai's M A Chidambaram Stadium from March 26-30 and the remaining two matches in the rubber are to be played at Ahmedabad (April 3-7) and Kanpur (April 11-15).
    
The Proteas are to arrive in Chennai on March 21.
    
Meanwhile, all the players who were part of the Test squad in Australia but not members of the victorious one-day team, will undergo a fitness-specific assessment in Bangalore at the National Cricket Academy tomorrow.
    
Skipper Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman and Wasim Jaffer had returned from Australia at the conclusion of the Test rubber in January-end and will have to undergo the fitness test.
    
Injured speedsters Zaheer Khan, who has gone to South Africa for treatment to his ankle, and R P Singh would also have to undergo a similar fitness assessment prior to the selection panel meeting, the sources added.