The Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has been 'excused' from attending the April 27 meeting that the Union Minister of State for Sports Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa has called in New Delhi.

The meeting, called in the wake of the match-fixing scandal, is to discuss the state of Indian cricket and find ways of improving it.

Ganguly told CricketNext.Com from his Mancherster home that the Board of Contolf for Cricket in India had communicated the Minister's desire to him. In turn, he had explained his difficulty to the attend the meeting in view of his commitments to Lancashire in the English county championship. The Board informed him on Saturday that he was excused from the meeting. Ganguly, however, clarified that no communication was made to him directly by the Ministry. At the same time, he has expressed he would be only too happy to share his thoughts with the Board and the Ministry.