Champions Trophy: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid favour India's participation

Legendary batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have advocated for India's participation in the upcoming Champions Trophy amid a row between the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) and ICC.

According to an 'Espnncricinfo' report, Tendulkar, Dravid and 10 other former cricketers want the Team India to feature in the tournament. 

The website said that Tendulkar, Dravid, Zaheer Khan, Gundappa Viswanath, Sandeep Patil, Sanjay Manjrekar, Aakash Chopra, Ajit Agarkar, Venkatesh Prasad, Saba Karim, Murali Kartik and Deep Dasgupta were "unanimous" that India should attempt to defend the Champions Trophy title they won in 2013. 

The BCCI is seriously mulling a pullout from the Champions Trophy despite the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators making it clear that such a decision could not be taken without its consent.

Read | Committee of Administrators instructs BCCI to 'immediately announce Champions Trophy squad' with strongly-worded letter 

The Board is likely to take a decision in this regard at its special general body meeting on May 7 in New Delhi. 

The doubt over India's participation in the Champions Trophy arose after the BCCI deliberately missed the April 25 deadline for submission of the squad in the wake of ICC proposing a new financial model, which reduces the Indian Board's revenues from 570 million to 293 million dollar.

(With inputs from PTI)

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