New Delhi, Aug 23: With top Indian cricketers making themselves unavailable by refusing to sign the sponsorship contract, veteran all rounder Robin Singh is likely to lead the second-string team for next month's Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka. Apart from Robin Singh, 13 of the 25 probables drawn up by the national selection committee have confirmed participation for the tournament, which has run into rough weather following the International Cricket Council's controversial sponsorship policy.

While four players from Tamil Nadu --Robin Singh, Sadagopan Ramesh, Hemang Badani and L Balaji have already confirmed, ten players from other states have given their verbal consent to take part in the Colombo meet, Board sources here said.

The Cricket Board, which has withheld announcement of the list fearing pressure from senior players, had asked the respective associations to get the confirmation of the selected probables. "Only after the probables confirmed their availability, the contract forms would be sent to them", the sources said.
The list of probables: S Ramesh, Gautam Gambhir, Gagan Khoda, Daniel Manohar, Connor Williams, Hemang Badani, Rohan Gavaskar, Jacob Martin, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, J P Yadav, Vijay Bharadwaj, Rakesh Patel, Sarandeep Singh, Murali Karthik, Ramesh Powar, Sairaj Bahutule, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Robin Singh, Irfan Pathan, L Balaji, Debashish Mohanty, Deep Dasgupta and MSK Prasad. Bureau Report