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Selectors flay Gavaskar, ShastriHYDERABAD: Four National selectors -- Kishen Rungta, MP Pandove, Sambaran Banerjee and Shivlal Yadav -- who ...

Selectors flay Gavaskar, Shastri

HYDERABAD: Four National selectors 8212; Kishen Rungta, MP Pandove, Sambaran Banerjee and Shivlal Yadav 8212; who are here to watch the North Zone-West Zone Deodhar Trophy match, came down heavily on two former Test cricketers, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, for their adverse remarks on the selection of the Indian team.

Criticising the comments of Gavaskar and Shastri, the selectors said quot;we discuss and watch the players in action in domestic cricket before picking the team.quot; The selectors who were elated with the Indian team8217;s success at Dhaka on Sunday, defended the omission of Rahul Dravid from the one-day squad. quot;He never used to rotate the strike. He will learn as he plays and we are confident he will make a comeback.quot;

Azhar to lead Hyderabad: Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin will lead the Hyderabad Ranji team for their first super-league match against Bihar at Jamshedpur to played from February 5 to 8.

The team: Mohammad Azharuddin capt, M V Sridhar vice-capt, VVS Laxman, Venkatpathi Raju, Kanwaljit Singh, Arvind Shetty, Daniel Manohar, Vanka Pratap, Noel David, Youraj Singh wk, Narenderpal Singh, T Pavan Kumar, Shivaji Yadav, R Sridhar, Timothy Ravikumar and Karthik Ramaswamy. Coach: ML Jaisimha.

WZ U-16 team

MUMBAI: The West Zone junior selection committee, chaired by Hemant Kanitkar, today named Saurashtra8217;s Prashant Joshi to lead the West Zone under-16 squad in the Vijay Hazare Trophy Inter-Zonal one-day league tournament to be held here from January 26-31.

West meet South on January 26, play East on January 27, North on January 30 and Central on January 31.

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The team: Prashant Joshi captain, Krishna Chawda wicket-keeper, Uday Kharavadra, Kishore Gohil, Jignesh Aditya all Saurashtra; Arjun Mistry vice-capt, Vinayak Mane, Bhavin Thakkar, Agam Pandit, Shakti Prasad all Mumbai; Virag Awate, Kashinath Khadkikar, Sunil Kadam all Maharashtra; Vimal Joshi and Akhilesh Rana both Baroda.

Mumbai lose

BANGALORE: Patiala stormed into the semi-finals with a 2-0 win over Mumbai in their final league match in the fourth SAI Inter Sports Hostel Hockey Tournament at the Sports Authority of India southern centre, here, today.

Patiala, who scored once in each half, completed their league engagement in Pool C with a clean slate to complete the semi-final line up in the tournament. Already Bangalore A Pool A, Lucknow Pool B and Calcutta Pool D have made the knock out grade.