Laxman stays back for one-day series

MUMBAI, JANUARY 5: The selection committee gave the expected green signal in asking VVS Laxman to continue as an Indian team member for th...

MUMBAI, JANUARY 5: The selection committee gave the expected green signal in asking VVS Laxman to continue as an Indian team member for the Carlton and United triangular one-day cricket series commencing on January nine.Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Jaywant Lele conveyed the official announcement here on Wednesday after an informal decision was taken on Tuesday. Laxman, who hit a heroic 167 in the third and final Test at Sydney, will stay back as an addition member of the Indian side.

The selectors had decided on retaining Laxman even before skipper Sachin Tendulkar and coach Kapil Dev requested the BCCI to retain the Hyderabad opener for the tri-series featuring India, Pakistan and Australia.

Media ignores Laxman’s heroics: Australian newspapers on Wednesday gave front page headlines to hail “Waugh’s Warriors” but amazingly did not have a word of praise for Laxman.

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The Telegraph, in fact, paid a back-hand compliment to Laxman when it said the Indian opener scored hisruns only as there were vacant spaces because of attacking field placements. It said: “Laxman muscled the ball through vast open spaces in an attacking field.”

The Sydney Morning Herald gloated over Lee mentioning his performance in the Test as “super show”. But there was no word that Laxman smashed the pace bowler for 52 runs in just five overs.

Though most newspapers mentioned that as many as 482 runs were scored on Tuesday, not a line was written on Laxman scoring 121 runs in the final session. It was the highest in a single session by an Indian surpassing Mohd Azharuddin’s 103 against England.