Batsmen's camp begins at NCA, players keep indoors

Bangalore, June 9 (UNI) Indian cricketers attending the four-day batting camp, prior to the twin tours of Ireland and England later this month, were confined to fitness exercises inside the National Cricket Academy at the KSCA stadium premises on the opening day here today.

The camp, which was fitness and training specific in nature, is being overseen by Team India physical trainer Gregory King and specialist fielding coach Robin Singh.

It began in the right earnest with nine players doing exercises in the state-of-the-art gym and later having a swimming session.

They also practiced yoga and blip tests. Tomorrow, the players would come out to practise outdoors, NCA sources said.

The group was, however, without Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Jaffer.

Tendulkar, with permission from the BCCI, had stayed back in Mumbai and was likely to arrive in the city tomorrow. Jaffer was down with flu and could not attend the opening day's sessions.

Four Indian batsmen -- Yuvraj Singh, Saurav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virender Sehwag -- selected for the camp, did not attend as they were away in Chennai to play in the Afro-Asia Cup series.

Speedster S Sreesanth, who missed the bowlers camp held at Infosys Global Training Centre campus in Mysore till yesterday as he was part of the Asian team that played against Africa XI in a Twenty-20 tie in Bangalore, joined the batsmen at the camp today and would be part of it tomorrow as well.

The other players attending the camp were Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Dinesh Mongia, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Mohammad Kaif and S Badrinath.

Meanwhile, speedster V R V Singh, who came to the city after finishing the bowlers camp remains in a high-tech hospital after suffering from a bout of viral fever. He was likely to be discharged tomorrow.

The Indian team that tours Ireland and England from the third week of this month would be picked on June 12. The team would then undergo a full-fledged cricket camp at the NCA from June 13 to 16.

UNI