Cricket: CAB dumps selectors

In their bid to prepare the Bengal boys ahead of the gruelling Ranji Trophy this season, the CAB administration has got their very first move completely wrong.

Jagmohan Dalmiya and Co have decided not to send over the senior Bengal selectors to oversee the two Bengal teams' preparatory matches in the re-season tournaments in Hyderabad and Chandigarh.

The CAB team led by Ranadeb Bose will set off for Hyderabad on Tuesday for the Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup, the first of two preparatory meets that the Bengal boys are getting to tune up for the Ranji Trophy.

The other CAB team, which will be led by last season's skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla, will meanwhile leave for Chandigarh a few days from now to take part in the JP Atray Tournament.

The CAB administration has kept the senior selection panel completely out of the loop, citing that technically the state body doesn't have selectors at this intermediary stage between two seasons.

So, even as new coach Roger Binny, recruited last month, will accompany the primary team to Hyderabad and then shuttle to and from Chandigarh in between as he finds convenient, selectors Sambaran Banerjee, Devang Gandhi and Saradindu Mukherjee won't get to catch up with the action.

Waterlogged Eden pavilion greets Sourav: When Sourav Ganguly dropped in at the Eden Gardens this afternoon, little did he expect what he saw - the area between the two dressing rooms of the stadium was waterlogged, thanks to monsoonal showers.

The CAB however reckons it's a not problem since, firstly, Eden isn't hosting a match in recent days, and secondly, the structure anyway will be completely revamped in the coming months.