Ahmedabad, April 12
Rahul Dravid was today made the Indian captain for the last two one-dayers against Pakistan in place of Sourav Ganguly who was banned for six limited-overs matches for slow over rate during the fourth match here.The cricket board, which announced a 15-member squad for the last two matches, gave Ganguly’s place in the side to Tamil Nadu’s S. Sriram while Anil Kumble was also back in the team in place of Irfan Pathan.
Sourav Ganguly was banned for six one-day internationals for the team’s slow over rate in the fourth limited overs tie against Pakistan here.
“The ICC match referee has verbally told us that he (Ganguly) has been banned for six matches but we are yet to get an official communication,” BCCI Joint Secretary Goutam Dasgupta told reporters here.
India were found to have bowled three overs short during the 48-overs a side match which Pakistan won by three wickets.
The decision to suspend Ganguly was taken after he breached the ICC Code of Conduct for the second match in succession.
Ganguly was earlier fined 70 percent of his match fee and reprimanded for having breached C1 Level 2 of
International Cricket Council’s code of conduct which relates to unfair play due to his side bowling its overs too slowly in the third match at Jamshedpur.
He pleaded guilty at a hearing conducted by Match Referee Chris Broad.
Five months ago, India’s slow overrate during an ODI against Pakistan in Kolkata had resulted in Ganguly being sentenced to a two-Test ban by match referee Clive Lloyd. ICC, however, later lifted the ban following an appeal by Ganguly.
Leg-spinner Kumble missed the first two one-dayers due to injury while he was not considered for selection for the next two matches.
Virender Sehwag was named Dravid’s deputy for the remaining matches of the series, to be organised in Kanpur on Friday and Delhi on Sunday.
Indian team: Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, M.S. Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Dinesh Mongia, S. Sriram, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Ashish Nehra, L. Balaji, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar. —
PTI
