Saurav not included in Super Series against Aussies
Hari Surti
May 9, 2005

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly failed to find a place in either the ICC World XI Test or one-day list of probables named here on Monday to take on world champions Australia in the Johnnie Walker Super Series in October.

Saurav was disappointed but looked forward to lively cricket in the future.

Acoording to PTI, while the Bengal stylist was ignored by the six-member International Cricket Council selection panel headed by former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, five other Indians found it to the 30-strong list for both Tests and ODIs while Anil Kumble and V V S Laxman made it to the Test probables list.

Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh - whose action is under the ICC's scrutiny - and ICC's best young player of the year Irfan Pathan were the five Indians who made it to both the lists announced here by Gavaskar in the presence of special invitee Pathan.

Gavaskar said the probables had been selected on the basis of current form, their past records against Australia in Australia while the balance of the team had also been taken into account.

"We have not given in to tokenism as is evident from the fact that no player from Bangladesh or Zimbabwe has been picked," Gavaskar said after announcing the team.

Gavaskar also said that new names could be added to the list following eye-catching displays before the list is pruned to 20 in July.

The captain and vice-captain are also to be announced in July while the final squad of 14 for the Super Test and 13 for the one-day series would be announced by the middle or late August, Gavaskar added.

One of the criterion employed by the selection panel, as per the brief given to it by the world governing council for the game, was that players suspended by the ICC under its code of conduct should not be considered for Tests or ODIs as the case may be.

Asked whether Ganguly's name was ignored for the three Super Series one-day ties to be held indoors at Melbourne's Telstradome on October 5, 7 and 9 because of his six-match suspension, ICC's Brendon McClements clarified that the Indian captain has the tri-series in Sri Lanka in July-August to complete his suspension before the super series.

The six-day super series Test is to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground from October 14-19.

THE 30-STRONG PROBABLES LIST:

For both super series test and one-dayers:

Andrew Flintoff (England), Rahul Dravid, Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Sachin Tendulkar (India), Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori (New Zealand), Shoaib Akhtar, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Naved-ul-Hassan (Pakistan), Mark Boucher, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Makaya Ntini (South Africa), Muthiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara, Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka), Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan (West Indies).

For Test only:

Steve Harmison, Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan (England), Anil Kumble, V V S Laxman (India). Danish Kaneria, Younis Khan (Pakistan), Andre Nel and Graeme Smith (South Africa).

For one-dayers only:

Darren Gough, Kevin Pietersen, Marcus Trescothick (England), Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq, Yousuf Youhana (Pakistan), Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) and Chris Gayle (West Indies).

Saurav not included in Super Series against Aussies
Hari Surti
Indian captain Sourav Ganguly failed to find a place in either the ICC World XI...
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