ICC approves Randiv’s inclusion

Christopher DHAMBARAGE from Mumbai, India

The ICC yesterday confirmed that the Event Technical Committee of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 has approved Suraj Randiv as a replacement player for the injured Angelo Mathews in the Sri Lanka squad for the tournament.

Mathews suffered a strain to his right thigh muscle which occurred during his side’s semifinal victory over New Zealand at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

Twenty six year old Randiv is now well set to make his World Cup debut for his country having arrived in India two days ago along with veteran fast bowler Chaminda Vaas who was also named as a stand bye player.

However the Sri Lankan team management decided to include Suraj Randiv as a replacement mainly due to his success against India in the recent past.

In fact Randiv made his one day international debut against India at Nagpur in 2009. Since then he has represented the country in a total of 21 One Day Internationals with 12 of those matches against India.

In addition Randiv has returned some of his best bowling figures also against India where he captured 3 for 40 at Dambulla and 3 for 51 at Nagpur.