South appear favourites

MUMBAI, NOV 30: It's time for another routine in domestic cricket calendar when the 38th edition of the Duleep Trophy gets under way at t...

MUMBAI, NOV 30: It8217;s time for another routine in domestic cricket calendar when the 38th edition of the Duleep Trophy gets under way at the Wankhede Stadium tomorrow.

The zonal competition, once the launching pad for international honours, has been devalued like the rest of the domestic championships by the lop-sided planning of the cricket administrators. The gloss from this season8217;s edition has been taken off by the Indian team8217;s forthcoming tour of New Zealand. To make matters worse, the next best in the land are also doing national duty, representing the India A team against West Indies A.

Robin Singh, the South Zone vice-captain, begs to differ. 8220;This tournament is the only stepping stone for most cricketers. It8217;s an opportunity and everyone has to utilise it. I would like to view it as an incentive to do well,8221; says the flamboyant Indian all-rounder who is a certainty for the one-day series that follows the Tests against New Zealand.

South Zone skipper Venkatapathy Raju admitted that thechampionship has lost the charm of the bygone years. He opined that the event would serve its purpose if held prior to the selection of the National teams.

8220;Performances do count and such games ought to be taken seriously,8221; added the left-arm spinner from Hyderabad.

Raju and Robin Singh are among the host of players with international experience featuring in the five-day duel between South Zone and North Zone.

In comparison, Vikram Rathore leads a fairly young North Zone side which should enable South, boasting of zonal regulars, the tag of pre-match favourites.

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Both teams will be looking to improve upon the last year8217;s record where they made their exit in the first round itself.

Central Zone and West Zone are the defending champions as the summit clash at Chennai last year was marred by rains.

THE TEAMS

North Zone from: Vikram Rathore captain, Pankaj Dharmani, Harvinder Singh, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Dinesh Mongia all Punjab, Ashu Dani, Virender Sehwag, Vijay Dahiyawicket-keeper, Mithun Minhas, Amit Bhandari, Ashish Nehra all Delhi, Jitender Singh, Pradeep Jain, Pankaj Thakur all Haryana and Rajeev Nayyar Himachal Pradesh.

South Zone from: Venkatapathy Raju captain, Nand Kishore, Vishnu Vardhan, Arvind Shetty, Narendra Pal Singh all Hyderabad, Robin Singh vice-captain, Hemang Badani, Divakar Vasu, Sridharan Sriram all Tamil Nadu, Sujit Somasundar, Vijay Bharadwaj, Somasekhar Shiraguppi wicket-keeper, Sridharan Sharath all Karnataka, K Ananthapadmanabhan Kerala and Hanumara Ramkishen Andhra.

Umpires: A Bhatacharjee amp; Subrata Banerjee both Bengal

Match Observer: Bhairav Ganguly

THE SCHEDULE

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Dec 1-5: South Zone vs North Zone at Mumbai A; Dec 9-12: Central Zone vs Winner of A at Ahmedabad; Dec 9-12: West Zone vs East Zone at Valsad; Dec 17-21: Final at Aurangabad