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Friday, Mar 30, 2007
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Team arrives amidst tight security

Special Correspondent

SAFE ESCORT: Mahendra Singh Dhoni leaves the Delhi international airport escorted by a security personnel. — Photo: AFP

NEW DELHI: The Indian cricketers returned home late on Wednesday night to a new experience of being whisked away by security personnel from the international airports at Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore following their dismal ICC World Cup performance.

Tight security was in place for the players since the authorities feared adverse public reaction. Rarely in the past have the players gone through the humiliation of not wanting to face the fans, who were agitated at the exit of their team at the first stage itself.

Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni landed in Delhi while Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh opted to stay back in London for a few days.

Our Bangalore Principal Correspondent reports

Rahul Dravid along with Anil Kumble and Robin Uthappa arrived in Bangalore in the wee hours on Thursday morning. The trio whizzed past the waiting media personnel using the VIP exit.

Biding their time

Meanwhile Dinesh Karthik and analyst S. Ramakrishnan, who were also on the same flight, preferred to stay on inside the airport and bided their time to catch the early morning flight to Chennai.

On April 6, Dravid will meet the BCCI top brass at Mumbai. Dravid along with coach Greg Chappell and manager Sanjay Jagdale will submit their appraisal reports on the World Cup performance.

Speculation is also rife about Kumble's imminent retirement from one-dayers. India's leading wicket-taker had said prior to his departure to the West Indies that the World Cup would be his last outing in one-dayers.

Our Mumbai Special Correspondent Reports

Sachin Tendulkar, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan and S. Sreesanth, Jagdale and the support staff comprising Chappell, bio-mechanics expert Ian Frazer, physio John Gloster, physical trainer Gregory King and masseur Ramesh Mane arrived here in the early hours of Thursday.

Safe exit

The airport customs department cooperated with the police and CISF, which handles security at all airports in India, by providing safe exit into a waiting bus and cars parked near the baggage handling area.

Security measures are also being tightened at the hotel Chappell and his support staff are to stay in until their future with the Indian team is decided.Chappell is unlikely to move out of Mumbai until April 7 and in the next nine days will get time to write a World Cup specific report that one expects to include points on the selection of the team. Both Chappell and Jagdale's reports will be addressed to the BCCI President Sharad Pawar. It's also possible that Chappell and his team may be given an opportunity for a preparatory interaction with the BCCI officials.

No clarity

There's no clarity on whether Chappell would be offered a contract for a specific period of time, but a senior BCCI official said, "the purpose of employing him again would be defeated if he's not given leeway in certain matters. Even he may not be inclined to take the offer in the event of his not being given the freedom. One has to be fair in dealing with such matters.''

Mr. Pawar has said first the BCCI has to decide whether a change is required. From 1990 onward retired Test cricketers in Bishen Bedi, Abbas Ali Baig, Ajit Wadekar, Madan Lal, Sandeep Patil, Anshuman Gaekwad and Kapil Dev have travelled with the team either as a cricket manager or coach. It was after the tour of Australia in 1999, that senior members expressed their unhappiness with the approach and method followed by the former cricketers and told the BCCI that there was merit and the time had come to employ a foreign coach.

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