BCCI rounds up sweet 16

MUMBAI: The squad for the Champions Trophy will be selected on September 3 but the broad outline of the 14 to be picked for the tournament is out. By announcing a list of 16 players, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has given enough indication about who will be on board for the ICC knock-out tournament.

On Monday, BCCI released the list — which includes rookie fast bowler VRV Singh besides the 15 that went to Sri Lanka — for the high-intensity rolling camp to be held in Bangalore from August 30. The camp has been staggered into three phases with two days each for each set of players. Each set will spend three days at the National Cricket Academy, the venue.

According to Board sources, captain Rahul Dravid, coach Greg Chappell in consultation with selection committee chairman Kiran More have made the list and decided on the camp schedule. “How can one drop a player without giving him sufficient chance?” pointed out a national selector about the squad that went for the aborted series to Sri Lanka, hinting that the crux of the Champions Trophy team will be from the list.

It is learnt that as is mandatory, the selectors will pick a 14-member team for the Champions Trophy and add two more players to the 14 for the September 12-24 Malaysia tri-series. The BCCI has to announce the team for the Champions Trophy before September 5.

Meanwhile, the ‘ignored’ members of the selection committee have refused to read too much into the list saying that those called are not necessarily certainties for the Champions Trophy. “The captain and the coach can call any player for a camp. That is their discretion. But selecting a team is as much the prerogative of the selectors,” said a selector who was not consulted before the list was announced.

After the camp, the selected players will play a couple of matches on September 8 and 9 before flying to Kuala Lumpur.

List of players and the schedule

Aug 30 and 31: Ajit Agarkar, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar and Mohd Kaif

Sep 2-4: Munaf Patel, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rudra Pratap Singh, Suresh Raina and Shantakumaran Sreesanth

Sep 5 and 6: Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Mongia and VRV Singh

With inputs from Agencies

What about the other 14?

The announcement of 16 implies the end of the Champions Trophy dream for the 14 excluded, including one player called Sourav Ganguly. The BCCI announced a list of 30 probables on August 9 in Bangalore in compliance with the ICC guidelines after flirting with the idea of taking on board only 22 players. With the washout of the tri-series in Sri Lanka, every player of that team deserved another chance. Those who are left out from the probables are: Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Parthiv Patel, Y Venugopal Rao, Robin Uthappa, SS Paul, Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, S Badrinath, TP Singh and Dinesh Kartik. Only Anil Kumble, who has also been left out, stands a good chance to make the squad.