All-rounder, Rohan Selvaratnam, will assume the full time captaincy role of the Malaysian national team at this week's Tuanka Ja'Afar Trophy in Bangkok, Thailand, following the decision by his predecessor, Suresh Navaratnam, to stand down.

Navaratnam quit the post, telling disappointed Malaysian Cricket Association officials it was affecting his batting. The 25-year-old opens the bowling and bats in the middle order.

Selvaratnam captained Malaysia to a 2-1 series win in the recent Stan Nagiah Trophy in Singapore, but Navaratnam was expected to resume the captaincy on his return from playing club cricket in Melbourne.

The Johore-born Selvaratnam has been given a near-full strength squad for cricket's South East Asian Championships, which also features the host, Thailand, and Singapore.

Navaratnam, Rakesh Madhavan and wicket-keeper/batsman, Shankar Retinam, have all returned from Australia to bolster Malaysia's Stan Nagiah Trophy outfit, partially nullifying the absence of Vishnu and Arul Suppiah, M.Muniandy and Ramesh Menon, unavailable due to respective work and study commitments.

The loss of the Suppiahs and Menon will weaken Malaysia in the spin department, despite the inclusion of off spinner, Shaun Selvaratnam. Batsman, Steven Bell, who played for Malaysia at the 1982 ICC Trophy, comes back after being unavailable for several years.

Hong Kong's squad will be without its overseas-based contingent of wicket-keeper/batsman, Mark Davies, spinner, Alex French, and all-rounder, Roy Lam Sam.

Officials opted to use the tournament to blood three national under 19 players instead of the costly option of flying the Australian-based Davies and UK-based French and Lam Sam.

The youngsters making their debuts are batsman, Duutish Chaudhary, and all-rounders, Rohan Boghani and Kieran Kumaria.

Hong Kong and Malaysia are taking the tournament very seriously as part of their preparations for the ICC Trophy, starting in June.

In contrast, Singaporean officials are downplaying their chances, due to a limited buildup due to player unavailability at training.

However, it has been boosted by the return of key Brisbane-based batsman, Joshua Dearing, who missed the Stan Nagiah Trophy.

Thailand, which has been given special dispensation to field seven players which are not residentially qualified, make their Trophy comeback after an absence of two years.

Four of the players are Thai born, although of expatriate ancestry.

The new South Asian dominated Thai Cricket Asssociation administation has been promised every possible assistance by the Asian Cricket Council.

The players will enjoy selubrious facilites at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club and Dusit Polo grounds.

The draw:
Wednesday, March 7 - Thailand vs. Malaysia; Singapore vs. Hong Kong
Friday, March 9 - Hong Kong vs. Malaysia; Thailand vs. Singapore
Saturday, March 10 - Hong Kong vs. Thailand; Malaysia vs. Singapore

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd