Tendulkar opts out

CHENNAI, January 22: The West Zone-East Zone Deodhar Trophy match at MAC Stadium on Friday which was billed as the clash of the two titans, Sachin Tendulkar and Saurav Ganguly, will fade out as yet another ritual with the absence of the former.

Tendulkar8217;s non-appearance was confirmed by Ratnakar Shetty, joint secretary, Mumbai Cricket Association, who told newsmen over phone that Tendulkar would not be playing in any of the Deodhar matches. Sanjay Manjrekar, who captained the team in Hyderabad, he said, was unwell. Nayan Mongia, the non-talking captain, was expected to arrive from Mumbai in the evening which meant that wicketkeeper Sanjay Khondalkar had to go back home. Sairaj Bahutule, who did duty at Dhaka, was at the nets this morning so was Vinod Kambli, who would use the occasion to come back into reckoning.

The teams: East Zone: Saurav Ganguly capt., Saba Karim wk, Nikhil Haldipur, Devang Gandhi, Subrajit Saikia, Sanjay Raul, Rohan Gavaskar, Rajib Raja, Tariq-ur-Rehman, Robin Morris, Goutam Dutta, Subrata Banerjee, Utpal Chatterjee, Rajarshi Roy Choudhary and P Jaya Chandra.

West Zone: Nayan Mongia capt, Rajesh Sutar, Jatin Paranjpe, Vinod Kambli, Hrishkesh Kanitkar, Sairaj Bahutule, Amol Muzumdar, Ajit Agarkar, Nilesh Kulkarni, Paras Mhambrey, Iqbal Siddiqui, Jacob Martin, Sitanshu Kotak and Rajesh Gharsongdia.