Powar made to sit out practice

Mumbai: A negligent Ramesh Powar was disciplined by the West Zone team coach Chandrakant Pandit at the Brabourne Stadium, Cricket Club of India here on Thursday. The Mumbai off-spinner, who forgot to bring the formal colours, was not allowed to train and practise with the team on the eve of the clash between West and East Zones in the All Star Series tournament for the Deodhar Trophy.Pandit, who had even convinced Irfan Pathan to wear the official dress for practice sessions during the first round matches at Motera, forced Powar to watch the nets from a cane chair, but allowed him to join the team meeting."It would have been improper to train and practise wearing different clothes. Moreover, we have been given three sets for the tournament. He forgot to carry the team colours and hence I told him to sit behind the nets," said Pandit.
Vital role
In the inter-zonal tournament opener at Motera last Sunday, Powar captured four vital Central Zone wickets and along with Wasim Jaffer fashioned West Zone's win. Left out of the Indian team for the ICC World Cup, the portly off spinner hopes to sustain his performance in the remaining part of the BCCI's domestic tournament and be in the running for India's engagements after the World Cup.
Former chairman of the national selection committee Kiran More feels Powar's time will come, but said he should avoid playing too much league cricket in England.
"He can develop into an excellent Test match bowler," said More, who came to Mumbai on Wednesday to greet the Indian team that left for Montego Bay (Jamaica) early on Thursday morning.
Fine performances
Apart from Powar and Jaffer's performances, Assam junior Parvez Aziz's blitzkrieg, Rohan Gavaskar's match-winning knock against South Zone and Joginder Sharma's incisive spell against Central were some of the highlights of the first round matches played at Motera. Delhi opener Gautam Gambhir, cut out the frills and anchored North to an easy win against Central. North leads the table with five points, followed by West and East with four each.
The West versus East, South versus Central and North versus West matches will be played at the Brabourne Stadium on March 2, 3 and 4. The remaining four matches will be played at the Wankhede on March 7, 8, 10 and 11.
The teams (from):
West Zone: Amol Muzumdar (Captain), Wasim Jaffer, Rohit Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Ramesh Powar, Sairaj Bahutule, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Shrikant Mundhe, Rakesh Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Pinal Shah, Rajesh Pawar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Parthiv Patel, Sidharth Trivedi.
East Zone: Deep Dasgupta (Captain), Wriddhiman Saha, Parvez Aziz, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Manoj Tiwary, Rohan Gavaskar, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Mihir Diwakar, Shibsagar Singh, Ranadeb Bose, Shib Shankar Paul, Saurasish Lahiri, Bikas Pati, Timir Chanda, Abu Nachem, Debasis Mohanty.
Umpires: I. Sivaram and R. Radhakrishnan. Third umpire: Sanjeev Rao. Match Referee: Anil Patel. Hours of play: 1.30 to 5 p.m. and 5. 45 p.m. onwards.

courtesy:Hindu