BOMBAY, 6 August 2003 — Indian pace bowler Javagal Srinath has opted out of a training squad for the Test series against New Zealand later this year because of a knee injury.

Srinath’s move has again raised doubts about his future in international cricket and he said yesterday he was still considering a second retirement.

The 33-year-old, who was persuaded to return from retirement to lead the Indian pace attack at the World Cup earlier this year, told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) he was not fit enough to take part.

“Srinath told the board he is not keeping well,” Karunakaran Nair, secretary of the BCCI, told reporters yesterday.

“He is undergoing rehabilitation and he’s not fully fit. He will not be in the camp with the other probables, but depending on his fitness, we will decide whether to pick him for the series.” Speaking from Bangalore, Srinath told Reuters he was nursing an injury to his right knee and would decide whether to play against New Zealand by the end of August.

“I have just started running,” he said. “I have to strengthen my knee and I don’t want to get back without being fully fit.”

Srinath announced his retirement from Tests after the West Indies series in June last year, but was persuaded by captain Saurav Ganguly to return for a series in New Zealand last December and his fourth World Cup earlier this year.

The veteran of 67 Tests said after the World Cup that he was still considering whether to continue with the Indian team or not. “That (plan) is also there,” Srinath said on Tuesday. “I will consider everything before deciding in the next three weeks.”

The 36 players named in the “probables” squad for the training camp starting in Bangalore on Aug. 14 were otherwise as expected. Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh, who all play in county cricket in England, have been excused from the camp but will play a local Challenger series from Sept. 10-14.

India play two Tests against New Zealand in October followed by a one-day triangular series also involving Australia.

Ahmedabad to Host India-New Zealand Test

In Calcutta, the first cricket Test between India and New Zealand in October has been shifted to Ahmedabad due to poor ground conditions in Kanpur, it was announced yesterday.

“The Green Park stadium in Kanpur is not fit to stage the Test, so we have shifted the match to Ahmedabad,” said Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The Ahmedabad Test will be played from Oct. 8-12 while the northern town of Mohali will hold the second from Oct. 16-20 in the short two-match series.

Heavy monsoon rains in Kanpur ravaged both the newly-laid wicket and the seating area at the Green Park stadium, a regular Test center in India which is managed by cash-strapped local municipal authorities.

The BCCI did not want to take a chance since Kanpur’s future as an international venue could be in jeopardy if conditions were not right for staging a Test match.

Kanpur, along with Mohali and Ahmedabad, were also the venues for the three Tests New Zealand played on their last tour of India in 1999.

Ahmedabad, in the western state of Gujarat, is the most polluted city in India with air pollution levels 300 percent higher than the accepted standards, according to a recent report by federal pollution authorities. The high pollution levels there have been blamed on the large number of auto-rickshaws running on kerosene-adulterated fuel, the report said.

India Squad:

Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Mongia, Parthiv Patel, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Sanjay Bangar, Shiv Sundar Das, Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, Satyajit Parab, Hemang Badani, Sridharan Sriram, Rohan Gavaskar, Ambati Rayudu, Murali Kartik, Vijay Bharadwaj, Amit Mishra, Amit Bhandari, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Avishkar Salvi, Irfan Pathan Jr, Mithun Minhas, Ajay Ratra, Tilak Naidu, Vangipurappu Laxman, Sairaj Bahutule, Ramesh Powar, Jai Prakash Yadav, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Sarandeep Singh, Siddharth Trivedi.