Venkatesh, Alvito left out of Indian squad against Saudis

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Former captain Shanmugam Venkatesh and East Bengal forward Alvito D' Cunha were left out of a 20-member Baichung Bhutia-led Indian football squad announced today to take on Saudi Arabia in their away match of Asian Cup 2007 Qualifying Tournament on September 6 in Jeddah.

Club-mate Syed Rahim Nabi will take D' Cunha's place while Salgaocar midfielder Micky Fernandes replaces Bibiano Fernandez from the squad which lost 0-3 to the same oppenent on August 16 in Kolkata.

Habib ur Rehman, who was a part of the home match squad, was also ignored, an All India Football Federation statement said.

The Squad: Goalkeepers: Sandip Nandy (Mahindra United); Subrata Paul (Mohun Bagan); Subhasis Roy Chaudhary (Mahindra United) Defenders: Surukumar Singh (Mahindra United); N S Manju (Mahindra United); Deepak Mondal (Mohun Bagan); Samir Naik (Dempo SC); Anupam Sarkar (East Bengal); Narinder Singh (JCT); N P Pradeep(Mahindra United); Sanjiv Maria (Mohun Bagan) Midfielders: Steven Dias (Mahindra United); Mehrajuddin Wadoo (Mohun Bagan); Manjit Singh (Bengal); P Renedy Singh (JCT) Micky Fernandes (Salgaocar SC) Forwards: Syed Rahim Nabi (East Bengal); Fredy Mascarnhas (East Bengal); Sunil Chhetri (JCT); Bhaichung Bhutia (Mohun Bagan, Captain) Officials : Robert Douglas Houghton (Chief Coach) Alfonso Maricio Milagres (Asst Coach) Antonio Marcos Pacheco (GK Coach) Pradeep Choudhury (Manager).

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