Indians bar media from practice session

Indian team, preparing for the practice Twenty20 match against Leicestershire, barred the media from its training session.

Grace Road (Leicester): The bomb scare was in Kent but the Indian cricket team, preparing for the practice Twenty20 match against Leicestershire on Monday, took precautions here and barred the media from its training session.

Manager Shivlal Yadav said it was due to the "bomb scare" which gripped the city of Canterbury in the match against Kent two days ago. But what it had got to do with the practice session at Leicester took some convincing. The liaison officer of the team though said, "the coach (Duncan Fletcher) has asked me and the security personnels to keep media off the practice session" -- an assertion which was confirmed by more than one security personnel guarding the gates of the nets. The assembled media was agitated for the interest now centres around how the defending world champions fare in the one-day matches after a 0-4 whitewash in the Test series. There is considerable concern on how Gautam Gambhir, suffering from blurred vision, is shaping up for the one-dayers and whether newcomers -- Ajinkya Rahane and Varun Aaron -- could be in with a chance to find a place in the playing XI. Yadav informed that Gambhir indeed had nets this morning though it was largely restricted to throwdowns from bowling coach Eric Simmons. It was also revealed by one of the players, returning to pavilion, that both Rahane and Aaron had stints at the nets. All this media could gather only by word of mouth as there was no visual or recording opportunity available for them. PTI