The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Thursday, November 29, 2001, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

Sehwag in 14 for Mohali Test

Jaipur, November 28
Continuing its defiance of the International Cricket Council, India today included batsman Virender Sehwag in the 14-member squad for the first Test against England starting on December 3 at Mohali raising a question mark over the three-match series.

The selectors also dropped all the five fast bowlers who played in the Test series in South Africa and included three rookie speedsters while recalling off-spinner Sharandeep Singh. The three new faces in the Indian side are Tinu Yohanan of Kerala, Maharashtra’s Iqbal Siddiqui and Sanjay Bangar of Railways.

The ICC reacted tonight to the Indian selectors decision by firmly ruling out any compromise on the inclusion of Sehwag, but still emphasised that it was hopeful of a negotiated resolution of the issue by mid-day Friday, the deadline set by it for the Indian board to drop the player.

The vague optimism emanating from the ICC headquarters in London follows the telephonic discussions between the ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed and Indian Cricket Board President Jagmohan Dalmiya since yesterday.

Squad: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Shiv Sunder Das, Connor Williams, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Deep Dasgupta, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Sanjay Bangar, Tinu Yohanan, Iqbal Siddiqui, Sharandeep Singh. PTI

BCCI rejects demand

Jagmohan Dalmiya, President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, speaks during a news conference in Kolkata on Wednesday. — Reuters photo

Kolkata
The BCCI today outrightly rejected ICC’s demand to make public its stand on the inclusion of Virender Sehwag by the Friday deadline but said it was willing to find a solution to the current impasse through discussions with the game’s apex body.

Jagmohan Dalmiya dismissed the ICC demand, saying “Rules of the players and team officials’ code of conduct specifically forbid disclosure of the composition of the teams.” Dalmiya, addressing a media conference here, said BCCI had already sent its written response to the ICC’s letter setting the deadline.

Sachin not guilty: ICC

London, November 28
In a sudden climbdown, the International Cricket Council (ICC) tonight exonerated Sachin Tendulkar of ball-tampering charges saying that he had been guilty of merely not informing the umpires that he was cleaning the ball during the second Test against South Africa last week.

The master batsman had been handed down a suspended one match ban and a fine by Denness during the second Test match between India and South Africa at Port Elizabeth last week for not informing the umpires that he was removing grass from the seam of the ball, the ICC said.

“Sachin Tendulkar has not been found guilty of ball tampering. The punishment was for removing grass from the ball but not having informed the umpires, which is very different from ball tampering,” ICC spokesman Jonathan Hamus said.

This clarification is in sharp contrast to the official statement issued by Denness after imposing penalties against the master batsman.

In his statement, Denness said Tendulkar had been penalised for “interference with the match ball, thus changing its condition”. PTI