The Board of Control for Cricket in India has left it to the selection committee to decide whether to include banned India captain Sourav Ganguly in the squad for the tri-series in Sri Lanka later this month.
The latest development puts the onus on the five selectors to handle what appears a highly tricky situation, with ICC Dispute Resolution Commissioner Justice Albie Sachs unlikely to give a final ruling before the team departs for Sri Lanka.
| |||||||||||
"It will be decided by the chairman of the selection committee," BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra told reporters in Kolkata.
BCCI secretary S K Nair also had a similar comment.
"We have directed the selectors to decide on the Ganguly issue," said Nair, adding that it would be a 15-member squad that will leave for the island nation on July 23.
The team is to be selected on July 18.
It still remains unclear whether the Indian captain would be provisionally accommodated in the team pending a final verdict on the ban, which was slapped on him for slow over rates during the one-day series against Pakistan at home in April this year.
Ganguly, who has already sat out for two matches, had his appeal against the ban turned down by ICC Appeals Commissioner Michael Beloff. The BCCI took the issue to the ICC, disputing the process by which Ganguly's appeal was heard.
Sachs has given the ICC and the BCCI until July 20 to file the written submissions and further two days (July 22) to give their replies. He has not set a timeframe for his verdict.
More from rediff