The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Saturday refuted reports in a section of the media terming them "untrue and malicious" in nature towards Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, who was ruled out of the upcoming N K P Salve Challenger Trophy in Mohali because of 'mild tennis elbow symptom'.
Ganguly was examined by Board-appointed sports medicine expert Dr Anant Joshi and Indian team physio John Gloster in Mumbai on Friday and advised ten days' complete rest before being asked to return for a reassessment of his injury on October 17.
However, some news reports today said that Ganguly had decided not to play in the Challenger Series even before meeting Joshi and Gloster, who had no option except to grant him a ten-day rest period as recommended by Kolkata-based physician Dr Kalyan Mukherjee who had examined him earlier.
Terming these reports as "fiction of their imagination" in spite of the Board's best efforts to provide the media with a factual picture, BCCI's executive secretary-in-charge, Ratnakar Shetty, said these kind of reports also harmed the players' interests.
Meanwhile, Dr Joshi said Ganguly's injury is not similar to Sachin Tendulkar's who was forced to undergo an operation in May to set his tennis elbow right after it was first detected in August 2004.
"Ganguly's tennis elbow problem does not seem as bad as Sachin's," Dr Joshi said.
About Ganguly's realistic chance of recovering in time for the October 25-November 12 one-day series against Sri Lanka, Dr Joshi said it could be stated only after he and Gloster examined him on October 17.
"We will reassess after ten days of complete rest to the elbow and then decide on further course of action," Dr Joshi added.
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