After much dilly-dallying the selection panel of the Board of Control for Cricket in India finally announced the team for the third and final Test against Pakistan, to be played in Bangalore from December 8.
The list of probables for the tour of Australia was also announced by its secretary, Niranjan Shah, following a meeting that lasted close to two hours.
The meeting, which was scheduled to commence at 1500 IST, was deferred to 1530. Chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar arrived only at 1745 after which it commenced.
The meeting, held at the conference hall of Hotel Grand Ashok, ended at around 1900 IST following which Shah came out with the selectors and read out the list.
It seemed as though he was doing the world a favour by making the announcement in one long breath. He did not even make available a copy of the list and stormed back into the hotel after finishing.
He dodged every question posed by the media and was not even prepared to explain why certain players were dropped or included in the team.
All he said was that the list of 24 probables for the tour of Australia was prepared as some of the pacers were injured. He added that the selectors would meet again on December 12 to decide on the final team for the tour.
Shah perhaps did not want to be caught in an awkward position answering questions in the wake of the recent controversy surrounding Vengsarkar.
