The disruption of flights due to the flash strike by employees of state-owned carrier 'Indian' hit hard the opening day of the cricket camp for the Ireland-bound team, with six players unable to report as they could not reach Bangalore by Wednesday afternoon.
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Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Ramesh Powar, Rudra Pratap Singh, One-Day International team vice-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Piyush Chawla missed the first day of the four-day camp and are expected to be present on Thursday, camp coordinator Ramesh Rao said.
The players who reported on the first day were skipper Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and S Sreesanth.
The camp began without the presence of tour manager Chandu Borde, too, who will not attend at all, according to officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
"No, he [Borde] will not be at the camp. It will be overseen by bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach Robin Singh," said BCCI's Chief Administrative Officer Prof Ratnakar Shetty from Mumbai.
Team trainer Gregory King and physio John Gloster were, however, present along with Prasad and Robin Singh.
The nine players present on the first day practised for two-and-a-half hours with mostly junior bowlers from the Karnataka state side.
Conspicuously absent from the opening day's bowling stint was pace spearhead Zaheer Khan.
Zaheer had a long chat with physio Gloster, did two laps of the Chinnaswamy Stadium - where the team members practised - at a leisurely pace, sat down for a while and then beat a hasty retreat into the National Cricket Academy premises.
The left-arm pacer, out with a groin injury midway through the Afro-Asian Cup ODI series, has been declared fit for the Ireland and England tour by Gloster, but did not bowl at all at the nets.
Overall, the first day saw the campers doing fielding and catching practice.
While the others were facing the junior bowlers and S Sreesanth at the far end of the ground, Tendulkar had a stint at the nets with King and another local bowler bowling to him.
He later gave batting tips to Dinesh Karthik to whom he bowled leg breaks earlier in the session.
Prior to the full-fledged cricket camp for the team, the BCCI conducted a fitness-specific bowlers' camp at Mysore, from June 4-8, and a batsmen's camp at the NCA, from June 9, which concluded on Tuesday.
The players will disperse after the camp and re-assemble in Mumbai on 19th prior to their departure late that night for London.
