Erring OCA selectors recall five regulars

After Orissa suffered a humiliating elimination from the KSCA Invitation Cricket Tournament at Bangalore, the State senior selection committee today made amends by recalling five regular players to the team for the Buchi Babu All-India Tournament, set to begin at Chennai on August 16. Anshuman Gope, Deepak Behera, Alok Pradhan, Alok Mangaraj and Govind Poddar were replaced in the 14-member team by Haladhar Das, Bikash Swarup Pati, P Jayachandra, Rakesh Mohanty and Basant Mohanty. Orissa will first meet Kerala in the opening round on August 16 and 17. Their next two matches come up against Hyderabad (August 19 and 20) and Saurashtra (August 22 and 23). The top team of the group will advance to the semifinals. Meanwhile, OCA announced a cash award of Rs 50,000 for woman athlete Saraswati Chand for winning six medals, including two golds in the 13th World Police and Fire Games at Canada. Orissa team: Niranjan Behera (capt), Bikash Swarup Pati, Nataraj Behera, Paresh Patel, Rashmi Ranjan Das, Subit Biswal, P Jayachandra, Haladhar Das (wk), Rakesh Mohanty, Basant Mohanty, Santosh Jena, Bibhudutta Panda, Dhiraj Singh, Subhrajit Sahoo (wk). Coach: Abakash Khatua.