Gayle has operation for heart 'murmur'

The West Indies opening batsman Chris Gayle underwent an operation on his heart yesterday and will have to miss the third and final Test against Australia which starts in Adelaide tomorrow.

Gayle has a history of heart murmurs. He left the field during West Indies' first innings in the second Test in Hobart after suffering from an irregular heartbeat. He returned to the field and played out the match and said he was planning to have the procedure done at the end of the tour. However, he then decided to have the operation done more quickly. The West Indies management issued a statement saying the procedure had been successful and that Gayle would remain under observation overnight.

The Indian selectors yesterday retained their sacked captain, Sourav Ganguly, for the first Test in next month's home series against Sri Lanka. Ganguly was dismissed as one-day captain after a batting slump and a row with the team coach, Greg Chappell. Rahul Dravid, who took over, was also appointed Test captain on Tuesday. England visit India in the spring for a three-Test series.

India squad: R Dravid (capt), V Sehwag, S R Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, S C Ganguly, M Kaif, M S Dhoni (wkt), A S Kumble, I K Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, A B Agarkar, R P Singh, M Kartik, G Gambhir.