The players had a three-hour session of bowling, batting and fielding in the afternoon © AFP

Six players missed out on the opening day of the Cricket Skills camp for the players selected for the ODI series in Ireland which started in Bangalore at the National Cricket Academy today. Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Yuvraj Singh, and Ramesh Powar couldn't join the camp and all are expected to arrive in the city in the night.

The players had a three-hour session of bowling, batting and fielding in the afternoon. In the absence of Chandu Borde, the newly appointed manager of the Indian team, Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach, and Robin Singh, the fielding coach, are overseeing the camp. Team trainer Gregory King and physio John Gloster were also present. Even during the Bangladesh tour where Ravi Shastri was the cricket manager, Prasad used to take complete charge of the nets. It is learnt that Borde will not attend the camp.

The Indian board had conducted a bowlers' camp at Mysore from June 4-8 and a batsman's camp in Bangalore which concluded yesterday. Prasad had expressed satisfaction with the progress made in the two camps. "We wanted to keep the players going soon after the Bangladesh tour, which was tough because of the heat and humidity," Prasad said on June 12th.

"These camps were basically for improving fitness but me and Robin wanted to break the monotony and introduced batting and fielding sessions too, but briefly. In Mysore the players tried bowling at one spot and also some variations. In these eight days the players did core training, strengthening of body and built up endurance,' he said.

The players also took time off on Tuesday to interact with physically challenged children from 'Mathru Foundation', a charitable organisation, run by special Olympics medalist Malathi Holla.