Tendulkar doubtful for Mumbai-Australia clash

Glenn McGrath and his henchmen may have to cool off until the first Test match from February 27 before firing a first salvo against Sachin Tendulkar. The master batsman is a doubtful starter for next week's clash between Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai and the touring Australians, along with his Mumbai team mate Ajit Agarkar. Indian coach John Wright dropped the bombshell on Sunday as the Chennai camp formally wound to a close.

"We've got one or two fitness issues. There's a few niggles that have been picked up and Andrew Leipus is keeping an eye on it. Ajit Agarkar has got an ankle problem. He may be struggling for the match for Mumbai. Sachin Tendulkar is also in the same boat. He's got a calf strain and hasn't been able to run between the wickets. I suppose that's the only minor concern," said Wright.

Speaking at the joint press briefing, Sourav Ganguly again made it clear he was disinclined to entertain any questions about his rivals. "We've been speaking too much about the Australians, let's stick to questions on us and India". The skipper said this was probably one of the best camps he had attended and Wright added that the facilities were 'absolutely superb'. "Just training in this excellent environment made it a lot easier with some of the work we've had to do."

The camp offered 'good, proper, organised practice' in Ganguly's words. "Fitness is the main thing we worked on during the camp. We've had `bleep' tests where some did well and some couldn't. So it's good that we know where we stand and raise our standards of fitness." The coach, however, appeared to disagree with Ganguly on the primary focus of the exercise. "If you're fitter, it probably allows you to play at a certain level for longer but it doesn't make you a better player. Our overall standard is getting better but specifically this camp has been more about skills from my perspective."

Invited to tick off any of the nine spinners at the camp who impressed him, Wright resolutely declined, preferring to address them collectively as a unit. "I won't name any individual specifically but I think the quality, the depth and certainly the potential is there among the spinners. It's been good to have them working together. That's what we did during the Challenger Series. There were four of them who weren't involved (Harbhajan Singh, Sharandeep Singh, Venkatapathy Raju and Murali Kartik) and some who had the day off, so we worked as a group every morning. We involved Anil Kumble as well, it was valuable and we all enjoyed it."

A second preparatory camp for India's Test squad, scheduled earlier to last a week from February 20 has been curtailed; indeed Wright was reluctant to classify it as a camp at all. "The team that's selected on the 20th will meet on the 23rd afternoon in Mumbai and we'll begin our buildup for the Test. So it's not what I would call a camp, just the team getting together and starting to prepare for the match."

As the players all trudged off, two men stayed back for a final bout of practice. Sachin Tendulkar and Sairaj Bahutule go back a long way, starting off as schoolboy rivals in Mumbai. When Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli produced that famous 664 run stand in the Harris Shield, the 28-year-old leg spinner was slaughtered for figures of 0/182. Only, this time the roles were reversed. Tendulkar kept firing up plastic ball missiles from 16 yards on a roll of concrete and Bahutule, the confident air of a man with five first-class hundreds behind him, handled them with plenty of self-assurance.