Team India arrive in batches, camp under cloud cover

Kolkata, Nov 2 (UNI) Even as the Indian cricketers started arriving in batches, the CAB authorities are keeping their fingers crossed so that the conditioning camp gets underway at Eden Gardens today without any further rain interference.

The first to step foot in the city was S Sreeshanth and fielding coach Robin Singh, followed by Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Manager Lalchand Rajput and M S Dhoni.

Harbhajan Singh came at around 1115 hours and then came in Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa.

The met office has, however, predicted scattered to widespread rains throughout the day.

Meanwhile, CAB Jt-secretary Samar Pal told UNI, ''It has rained continuously from 5 am for three and half hours. But now there is a slight hint of sun and we hope that if the weather remains like this till evening the camp will get underway as expected.'' The nets have been put up on the practice pitch and the ground is 70 per cent dry, he added.

''If the weather deteriorates then we will be forced to take the camp indoors at the Pankaj Gupta facility,'' he added.

The Indian team will attend a two-day conditioning camp beginning here today, before moving to Guwahati on Sunday for the series opener against Pakistan on Monday.

Gautam Gambhir will join the team tomorrow. He is playing in the warm up match today between Pakistan and Delhi, where he scored four runs before being trapped lbw by Umar Gul.

Virender Sehwag who lost his father a couiple of days back is also scheduled to join the team tomorrow.

UNI