Mumbai ICL team begin practice, sans Lara

The practice session for Mumbai Champions outfit in the six-team Indian Cricket League started in earnest last week, but with no signs of Brian Lara yet.

The organisers, however, insisted on Monday that the West Indian great was sure to join the fold later this week.

"Talks that Lara is not coming are mere speculations. We wanted the foreign players to start joining the team only from this week and are happy that Nathan Astle (New Zealand) and Van Der Wath (South Africa) have already joined us ahead of schedule," said ICL's marketing head Gaurav Seth.

"We are expecting Lara, Vikram Solanki (England) and Nantie Hayward (South Africa) by the 21st or 22nd," the ICL representative added.

Astle, Wath and their other teammates, including former Ranji Trophy cricketers Rakesh Patel, Dheeraj Jadhav, Robin Morris, Kiran Powar and Anupam Sanklecha, had another round of practice this morning at the Western Railway ground in Mahalakshmi.

"We will be playing warm-up matches against the Kolkata Tigers between November 23 and 25 of this month before reaching Chandigarh on the November 27," said team manager Prakash Kelkar.

The first edition of the tournament, bankrolled by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group, is to commence at Panchkula stadium, near Chandigarh, on November 30.