Test team to be picked in Delhi

Sharad Pawar, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has summoned the national selectors to Delhi to meet him before they pick the squad for the Test series in South Africa. The selectors were due to meet in Mumbai on Thursday, November 30, but they will now meet in Delhi, where Pawar, the union minister for agriculture, is attending parliament.

Dilip Vengsarkar, chairman of the selection committee, who is due to travel to South Africa to be with the Indian team in time for the Tests, will meet with Venkatapathy Raju, Bhupinder Singh Sr, Sanjay Jagdale and Ranjib Biswal, to pick the squad of 16. Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, will also be present as convener of the meeting.

"The meeting will be held at 11.30am at the offices of the Delhi and District Cricket Association," Professor Ratnakar Shetty, administrative head of the BCCI, told Cricinfo. "The board president will meet the selectors before they pick the team for the Test series in South Africa."

Pawar has come under severe criticism from some of his parliamentary colleagues for the Indian team's dismal performance in the one-dayers in South Africa. The first match was rained out but India lost both the second and third by huge margins. They play the fourth game at Port Elizabeth today.

This selection meeting has already raised a lot of interest as the buzz around cricket circles has been that Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian captain, was in line for a recall for the Tests in South Africa. Ganguly, who has not played a Test since the tour of Pakistan in January-February this year, recently scored 43 and picked up three wickets as Bengal beat Punjab in their opening match of the Ranji season.