India veterans to play in Abu Dhabi tri series

Kapil Dev will be in action again, but for a noble cause © Getty Images

Veteran Indian players will participate in an unofficial tri-series involving Pakistan and Sri Lanka to be held in Abu Dhabi from May 1 to 3. The event, which is approved by the International Cricket Council and held to provide aid to the tsunami victims, would be the first at the new Sheikh Zayed cricket stadium.

Unlike the Pakistan and Sri Lankan teams, which will be led by Inzamam-ul-Haq and Marvan Atapattu respectively, India chose to sent a team packed with veterans. The tournament will be played on a league basis with each team playing each other once.

"We were unable to get top Indian players like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, so we took the help of former captain Kapil Dev to raise a team for our event," Ravi Pandit, an Abu Dhabi cricket official, was quoted in AFP. "The exact composition of the Indian team is not known but I can confirm that former players like Robin Singh, Sunil Joshi and Ajay Jadeja will take part."

According to Pandit, Sri Lanka and Pakistan would play their top players. This is the second time that India seniors have turned down to play in Abu Dhabi owning to a directive from the government to avoid off-shore venues after the match-fixing scandal in March 2000.

May 1 - Sri Lanka v India
May 2 - Sri Lanka v Pakistan
May 3 - India v Pakistan