Srinath opts out of India camp

Published August 6, 2003

MUMBAI, Aug 5: Indian pace bowler Javagal Srinath has opted out of a training camp to prepare for the Test series against New Zealand later this year, once again raising doubts about his future in international cricket.

The 36 players named in the “probables” squad for the training camp starting in Bangalore on Aug 14 were otherwise as expected, with all the other members of the World Cup squad retained.

Srinath, 33, who returned from retirement to lead the Indian pace attack at the World Cup earlier this year, told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) he was not well enough to take part.

“Srinath told the board he is not keeping well,” Karunakaran Nair, secretary of the BCCI, told reporters on Tuesday.

Srinath announced his retirement from Tests after the West Indies series in June last year but was persuaded by captain Saurav Ganguly to return for a series in New Zealand last December and his fourth World Cup earlier this year.

The veteran of 67 Tests said after the World Cup that he was still considering whether to continue with the Indian team or not.

Sachin Tendulkar, who underwent hand surgery in April, and Harbhajan Singh, who was treated for a finger injury, were both included in the “probables” squad after regaining fitness.

Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh, who all play in county cricket in England, have been excused from the camp but will play a local Challenger series from Sept 10-14.

Squad: Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Parthiv Patel, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Sanjay Bangar, Shiv Sundar Das, Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, Satyajit Parab, Hemang Badani, Sridharan Sriram, Rohan Gavaskar, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Kartik, Vijay Bharadwaj, Amit Mishra, Amit Bhandari, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Avishkar Salvi, Irfan Pathan Jr, Mithun Minhas, Ajay Ratra, Tilak Naidu, Vangipurappu Laxman, Sairaj Bahutule, Ramesh Powar, Jai Prakash Yadav, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Sarandeep Singh, Siddharth Trivedi.—Reuters

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