The India A concept has grown in importance in recent years if one goes by the fact that more and more players are coming up through these ranks to represent the senior team. Just in the last couple of years, cricketers like Ajit Agarkar, Debashish Mohanty, MSK Prasad, Vijay Bharadwaj, Sadagoppan Ramesh and Devang Gandhi have gone to play for the country after doing for the India A team.

There is little doubt that it is a sound idea to have a strong India A squad, regularly playing international cricket. Alive to the fact that there is a lot of talent at the junior level which needs to be encouraged, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has come up with regular tours involving the India A team. Last year the West Indies A side visited India, a tour that saw the blossoming of Ramesh's talent. Not long after the West Indians left Ramesh was opening the innings for India against Pakistan at Chennai in January this year.

Over the past few years, realising the importance of junior cricket, the BCCI appointed well known players as the coach of the India A team. And Sandip Patil, Madan Lal, Anshuman Gaekwad and K.Srikkanth all played their roles to perfection in encouraging the talent at their disposal. Srikkanth's successor is Roger Binny, another cricketer with the right credentials. And the former Indian all rounder was confidence personified on the eve of the team's departure for the Caribbean on Tuesday night. The team will play two `Tests', three one day matches and two three day matches during the four week tour.

Having taken over as coach only last month, the 44-year-old Binny who made his Test debut almost exactly 20 years ago against Pakistan in his home town of Bangalore, admitted that while he was not able to spend much time with the team members, he was keeping track of their performances. Being just a step or two away from playing in the national squad, the boys were all keen to do well on the tour. ``There are a couple of slots open in the Indian team and the India A team has quite a few contenders,'' said Binny.

The 15-member team, led by all rounder Hrishikesh Kanitkar, is a well balanced outfit. It is particularly strong in the pace bowling department with the presence of the Madhya Pradesh duo of Devendra Bundela and Harvinder Singh Sodhi, Amit Bhandari of Delhi, Laxmi Ratan Shukla of Bengal and Dodda Ganesh of Karnataka. Left arm spinners Karthik Murali and S.Sriram are expected to do well. The batting will revolve around Gagan Khoda, J.Arun Kumar, Md Kaif, Jacob Martin, Kanitkar, Sriram and wicket keeper Sameer Dighe. Former India wicketkeeper batsman Surinder Khanna is the manager.

The itinerary:

Nov 13 to 16: vs Trinidad in Trindad. Nov 19 to 22: First `Test' in Trinidad. Nov 25 to 27: vs Guyana in Guyana. Nov 30 to Dec 3: Second `Test' in Guyana. Dec 5: First one dayer in Guyana. Dec 11: Second one dayer in Grenada. Dec 13: Third one dayer in Grenada.