The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Subbaiah Pillai Trophy from today

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Friday, Feb 10, 2006

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Subbaiah Pillai Trophy from today

Sports Reporter

HYDERABAD: The big guns of Indian cricket from South Zone — leg-spinner Anil Kumble of Karnataka and stylish batsman V.V.S. Laxman of Hyderabad — have decided to skip the six-day K.S. Subbaiah Pillai Trophy limited-overs cricket tournament commencing at different grounds here from Friday.

This may seem inexplicable given the fact that the England one-day series is scheduled very soon at home, and this tournament will be one of the last chances for these outstanding cricketers to prove a point or two to the National selectors about their class in both forms of cricket.

According to Hyderabad coach N. Rajesh Yadav, Laxman opted out due to pressing engagements while Kumble, according to the Karnataka team management, did not officially state any reason.

Come what may, the importance of this event cannot be dismissed easily at least this time around given the fact that the winner and runner-up here qualify for the all-India knock-out tournament, (for which top two from each Zone qualify), next month.

The other important factor, which should clearly spur the discards and young hopefuls alike, is that this Subbaiah Pillai Trophy will also be treated as the selection tournament to pick the team for Deodhar Trophy to be held later this month.

Even as the big names have decided to stay away from the event, it does provide someone like Ambati Tirupati Rayudu the last big chance of this season to silence his growing number of critics with a standout performance. This Andhra cricketer, clearly down after an indifferent stint in the Ranji Trophy, is no doubt determined to come good in his former `home' town.

Onus on Venugopala Rao

So is the case with his captain Y. Venugopala Rao, who was suddenly shunted out of the National team after a brief stint. If the selectors thought there was something lacking in his attitude, then this is a good chance for him to make a big impact and be back in the reckoning. From Andhra, the man to watch out for is Shahabuddin, the leading wicket-taker with a haul of 30-plus and useful contributions with the bat in Ranji Trophy.

Definitely, Hyderabad will badly miss the services of Laxman. But in his place D. Vinay Kumar has been recalled and coach Yadav is hoping for a creditable performance from his team in what may be his last season as the State coach.

Significantly, the tournament also presents a picture of how things change so drastically for some cricketers like Tinu Yohannan, Sadagopan Ramesh (now playing for Kerala), Dinesh Kaarthick, Hemang Badani and Sridharan Sriram who not long ago, were names to reckon with in Indian cricket.

Tamil Nadu is the defending champion in this event, which will be played on a round-robin format.

Friday's fixture: Tamil Nadu vs Kerala (Gymkhana Ground); Hyderabad vs Karnataka (Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal); Andhra vs Goa.

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