Tour of South Africa 2001-02        Captain: Saurav Ganguly

46th Indian Test tour

Third Test-playing tour of South Africa by India

In Mumbai on 6 September Chandu Borde, chairman of the selection committee asked John Wright to give an evaluation of Ganguly's captaincy, and then named him as captain for the South African tour.

The third Test was stripped of its official status

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

Sri Lanka 2001

Members of the Test tour  party

Teams:  

Ba - Baroda

Bn - Bengal

D - Delhi

H - Hyderabad

K - Karnataka

Mb - Mumbai

Os - Orissa

Pj - Punjab

Rly - Railways

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(9 December 1960) : 27 yrs  9 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Tendulkar

Team Officials

Dr Mahendra Kumar Bhargawa of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association was named team manager. He also managed Indian tour to Australia in 1999-2000.   Shivlal Yadav (secretary of Hyderabad Cricket Association) was offered the post at first until Board president Dr A.C.Muthiah made a u-turn.

Amrit Mathur was an IAS officer who worked for the Sports Authority of India

Selectors

The selectors, CG Borde, S Madan Lal, AO Malhotra, S Jagdale and TA Sekar, along with Ganguly and coach John Wright, met in Mumbai - their last meeting before the Board named a new selection panel.

Selection

The ODI Team for the tri-series was announced in Mumbai on 7 September 2001.

Withdrawal: V V S Laxman (not yet recovered from knee operation).

Zaheer Khan who had lower abdominal problems and strain in his right ankle, and Laxman's replacement Hemang Badani (stress fracture of back) also withdrew from the first part of tour

Baroda's Jacob Martin and Punjab's Harvinder Singh replaced Badani and Zaheer for the one-day series.

Srinath, Tendulkar and Kumble were all declared fit. Ganguly had torn a ligament in the pelvic region and selected subject to fitness.

Unavailable :  S Ramesh maade himself unavailable for the Test squad on 19 October because of a back injury.  The team physio Andrew Leipus came to Mumbai specially to conduct fitness tests, and ruled left-arm pace bowler Ashish Nehra (groin injury) as unfit for the tour.  Agarkar was selected from amongst Debasish Mohanty and Baroda's Rakesh Patel.   Harvinder Singh, the fast bowling stand-by, seems to have been overlooked.

Test squad announced: Chairman Chandu Borde announced the Test squad in Mumbai on 23 October 2001.

Connor took Ramesh's place.  Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra passed the fitness test

Middle-order batsman V.V.S. Laxman had already joined the team in South Africa for the last two one-dayers

Travel

Physio Andrew Leipus and sports medicine expert Dr Anant Joshi conducted fitness tests at the Wankhede Stadium before the team left for South Africa on 24 September.

The 14-man squad with the exception of Ajit Agarkar flew on a South African Airways flight from Mumbai and arrived in Johannesburg to a low key reception, it being a public holiday in South Africa (Heritage Day).

The last minute replacement for Ashish Nehra, Agarkar, was summoned from Nairobi where he was playing in a triangular series match for Mumbai  He could not leave with the team on 24 September as his visa papers could not be processed in time, and he finally left for South Africa on 26 September.

A conditioning camp took place in Johannesburg from September 25-30. The tour proper began on 1 October.

V.V.S. Laxman, a member of the Test party, was called in for last 2 ODIs. 

Connor Williams, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Sameer Dighe, joined the team for the Test series while Martin, Yuvraj, Sodhi and Harvinder Singh left the team after the ODIs.

On-tour selection

Reinforcements

Sourav Ganguly requested the Board (BCCI) to review the physical fitness of left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan and fly him to South Africa at the earliest should he be declared fit.  Laxman was summoned for the last two ODIs when

Yuvraj Singh strained intercostal muscles.

Rahul Dravid (ruptured shoulder cartilage) was passed fit to play in the Test series.

Samir Dighe, the first-choice wicketkeeper, suffered back spasms on the morning of the first Test at Bloemfontein and returned home without playing a game   Dasgupta took over, and uncapped Ajay Ratra was placed on standby.

The Board asked the Selection Committee to hold a teleconference with the team management and decide whether to send any extra player for the remaining two Tests,

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

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Test appearances on tour

2  -  Das, Dasgupta, Dravid, Ganguly, Kumble, Laxman, Sehwag, Srinath, Tendulkar

1  -  Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Nehra, Zaheer Khan

0  -  Dighe, Prasad, Williams.

Highlights

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Tour Summary

Return to India

The four players who returned home after the one-day series were Jacob Martin, Yuvraj Singh, Harvinder Singh and Reetinder Singh Sodhi.

The Test team departed from Johannesburg on Thursday evening  29 November 2001 and arrived in Mumbai on 30 November.

Ganguly said he was surprised that the selectors did not consult him over the selection of the team for the forthcoming Mohali Test against England, which included five new bowlers and Sehwag

Finances

Published accounts of the tour