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'No cricket team for future Games', says Kalmadi

Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi said in New Delhi late Wednesday evening that the country should not send its cricket team for the Commonwealth Games in future.

In a sharp criticism of the performance of the Indian cricket team at the just concluded Games in Kuala Lumpur, Kalmadi said, ''There was no seriousness.'' He was speaking to reporters at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on arrival of the Indian contingent.

''The cricketers are professionals and have little interest in a medal event. Their hearts were in Toronto,'' the IOA chief said in an oblique reference to the Sahara Cup against Pakistan which was played in Canada during the same time, and the debacle in KL of the Ajay Jadeja-led team which failed to qualify for the semifinals, going down tamely to Australia.

''We should concentrate on Olympic events,'' he stressed. ''We have had enough of it,'' he added, expressing his disgust over the feud between the IOA and the Board of Control for Cricket in India over the participation of the Indian team.

Asked whether cricket would continue to figure in the next Games, he said,''It is not clear as of now. The next Games will be held in Manchester and England did not participate in cricket at these Games, so we can't say for certain."

It was only after sustained pressure from the IOA that the BCCI had selected two ''equally strong teams'' for the two events putting Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Robin Singh besides Jadeja on the Malaysia-bound squad.