Washout looms large again

Rain continued to lash this picturesque southern coastal town and the water-logged Esplanade Stadium, built beside the famous Portuguese fort, looks destined not to see any action.

The Sri Lankan board, reportedly losing Rs 33 lakh on every washed out tie, had sought the clearance of both India and New Zealand to play the three abandoned matches at Colombo.

The BCCSL plea, after a long sitting yesterday, was that the matches could be rescheduled at the Premadasa or Sinhalese Sports Club Stadium as nine more days were left in the event scheduled to end on July7.

The hosts proposed the final could be shifted to July 9 after accomodating the rain-marred ties. The Indian team management rejected this after a meeting yesterday.

Peeved at this, BCCSL has now suggested that the last set of league ties at Colombo have a reserve day the next day if rain intervened. The Indians have said they would convey their decision on this by June 30, on getting back to Colombo.

The Teams

India: Mohd Azharuddin (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Nayan Mongia, Anil Kumble, Ajit Agarkar, Venkatesh Prasad, Rahul Sanghvi, Debashish Mohanty and Gagan Khoda.New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (capt), Bryan Young, Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Matt Horne, Chris Cairns, Adam Parore, Chris Harris, Mark Priest, Daniel Vettori, Paul Wiseman, Alex Tait, Craig Spearman and Simon Doull.