TNCA geared up for coaching camp

The entire machinery of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) is geared up for the six-day coaching camp starting in Chennai on Saturday for the 20 Asia Cup probables.

With most of the senior and junior cricketers having arrived, the players were awaiting the arrival of coach John Wright, who is scheduled to arrive from New Zealand via Singapore on Friday night.

Also Read Shaping up for the season Dravid to continue as keeper: Ganguly

According to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sources, Wright had written to the BCCI and also the TNCA seeking information on the weather conditions in Chennai to determine whether there should be single or double sessions a day during the six-day camp.

Meanwhile, TNCA has kept ready two fast and spinning tracks for net practice on eastern and western side of the famous Chepauk Stadium.

The main playing wicket has also been readied for a 30-over a side match to be played between the probables on  July 7 before the watchful eyes of the five selectors headed by Syed Kirmani. The squad for the Asia Cup would be named after the match.

"The players will return to their homes on July 8 and regroup at Chennai before proceeding to Colombo on July 12," the sources said.

Dravid, who arrived in Chennai this morning, told reporters at the airport that the "Bangalore camp was useful. More thrust on physical fitness and other aspects of the game will be there at the Chennai camp. We are going to Colombo after a long time (after Oct 2002) and hopefully, we will return with the Asia Cup".

In order to use the fast bowlers sparingly ahead of the Asia Cup beginning in Sri Lanka on July 16, the BCCI has decided to invite eight speedsters from MRF Pace Academy and the Bangalore-based National Cricket Academy -- Munaf Patel, Aavishkar Salvi, S S Paul, Siddarth Trivedi, Sreeshant, Joginder Sharma, N C Aiyappa and Gagandeep Singh.

Tendulkar, the seniormost cricketer in the Indian team and Ganguly, have said that the team for the Asia Cup would try to remain as focussed as they had been during the last two successful tours of Australia and Pakistan.

Probables: Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, V V S Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Mohammed Kaif, Hemang Badani, Rohan Gavaskar, Parthiv Patel, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Ramesh Powar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan, Laxmipathy Balaji, Ajit Agarkar and Amit Bhandari.