Asian Test Championship in Sri Lanka  

                                          Captain:  Mohammad Azharuddin

Asian Test Championship

Third Test-playing tour of Sri Lanka by India

  (February 1999)

Three teams - India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – took part in the inaugural Asian Test Championship with $250 000 for the winning team.

Having already lost India the inaugural Asian Test Championship match against Pakistan in Calcutta (an additional Test at the end of their 1998-99 two-Test ‘Pepsi Friendship’ encounter), India then travelled to Colombo needing to win their match against Sri Lanka.

The format for the Test Championships was that each country played the other once, with 12 points for a win and up to 8 in bonus points in a drawn game, before a final at Dhaka for the top two sides.

Thus India’s tour consisted only of this one-off Test match.  A high-scoring match in batsman-friendly conditions saw India gain 5 points to Sri Lanka’s 4. The Lankans then played Pakistan and gained the seven points they needed to oust India from the final.  

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

New Zealand 1998-99

Next tour

Australia 1999-00

Next tour of Sri Lanka

2001

Members of the Test tour  party (14)

Opening batsmen:  V V S Laxman. Sadagoppan Ramesh.

Middle-order batsmen: Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Sachin Tendulkar

Wicket-keeper: Nayan Mongia

Spinners: Harbhajan Singh, Sunil Joshi, Anil Kumble

Fast bowlers: Ashish Nehra, Venkatesh Prasad, Laxmi Ratan Shukla

Zonal representation

 Duleep Trophy teams

C: Central (), E: East (), N: North (), S: South (), W: West ()

 Ranji Trophy teams

Ba Baroda (1)

Bn:  Bengal  (2)

D:  Delhi  (1)

Hd:  Hyderabad  (2)

K :   Karnataka  (4)

Mb:  Mumbai  (1)

Mh:  Maharashtra (1)

Pj:  Punjab  (1)

TN:  Tamil Nadu (1)

Average age of  team at time of the Test match

(24 February 1999) :

25 yrs  7 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Azharuddin 97, Tendulkar 67,  Kumble 52,  Mongia 39,  Dravid 28,  Ganguly 26,  Prasad 23,  Laxman 13,  Joshi 10, Harbhajan 5,  Ramesh 3,  Kanitkar 0,  Nehra 0,  Shukla 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

A.L.Wadekar (chairman),  S.Madan Lal,  A P Deshpande,  Ashok Malhotra, Shivlal Yadav.

Selection

Unavailable   Ajit Agarkar (stress fracture on leg), Vinod Kambli (ankle).

Withdrawn :  Javagal Srinath (sore shins).  Nehra was brought in when Srinath was rested to get over his injury.

Tour Party Announced:  Fourteen names were announced for the Championship match on 20 February 1999.

Not selected:   Devang Gandhi, Ajay Jadeja,  Debasis Mohanty.

Time between selection and departure from India   

 2 days

 (20 - 22 February)

Travel

Chennai  Q   Colombo

The Indian team was to have left for Colombo on 21 February but could not do so due to visa problem with two members of the contingent, Asish Nehra and manager Brijesh Patel; the travel agent Trade Wings had applied for visas late.  Departure was made from Chennai on 22 February.

Time spent in Sri Lanka

  6 days

(22 - 28 February)

On-tour selection committee

Brijesh Patel (manager),  Anshuman Gaekwad (coach),  Mohammad Azharuddin (captain).

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

Time spent in Sri Lanka before Test:   2 days

(22 - 24 February)

Test appearances on tour

1  -  Azharuddin, Dravid, Ganguly, Harbhajan, Kumble, Laxman, Mongia, Nehra, Prasad, Ramesh, Tendulkar

0  -  Joshi, Kanitkar, Shukla.

Highlights

•    Ramesh (143) and Dravid (107) added 232 runs in their second wicket partnership.

•    Sachin Tendulkar scored 124 not out in the second innings.   

Tour Summary

Return to India

Colombo  Q   Chennai?

Return was from Colombo on 28 February.

Time away from India

  6 days   (22 to 28 February)

Finances

Accounts of the tour

Postscript