Ganguly slams Asian XI selectors

Sourav Ganguly has said that he is "disgusted" at not being picked for the Asian XI in the forthcoming Afro-Asian cricket series. Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble and Irfan Pathan are the four Indians in the side for the three-match one-day series to be played in South Africa between August 17 and August 21.

Ganguly questioned the wisdom of the selectors for not having picked him. "It is a raw deal," Ganguly said to reporters at Dambulla, where India are involved in a tri-series also involving Sri Lanka and the West Indies. "I may not have scored in my four one-dayers this year, but does anybodys selection anywhere depend on four matches?" The Asian squad, captained by Inzamam-ul-Haq, includes six Pakistanis, four players each from India and Sri Lanka and one Bangladeshi.

The Asian selection panel comprised Majid Khan from Pakistan, Ravi Shastri from India, Graeme Labrooy from Sri Lanka and Shafiq-ul Haque from Bangladesh. None of the selectors presently serve on their respective national selection committees, a fact that irked Ganguly. "What I can't understand is," he asked, "why the chief selectors of the four Test-playing nations did not do the choosing and picking?" Ganguly is 33 runs short of 10,000 in one-day cricket. He will be the third man in ODI history to reach the milestone.

Ganguly claimed that he was being unfairly victimised. "I am disgusted," he said. "What about the nearly 10,000 one-day runs I have got? Don't they have value? Am I always to be the whipping boy?" Ganguly was earlier replaced as India captain for the ongoing tri-series by Rahul Dravid after being banned for slow over-rates against Pakistan in April.

The Asian XI versus African XI one-dayers, have been granted official status by the ICC. The matches will be played at Centurion on August 17 and at Durban on August 20 and 21.