The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : DDCA selection panel sacked

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Thursday, Feb 16, 2006

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Sport - Cricket

DDCA selection panel sacked

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Picking one player cost the Delhi selectors dearly and the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) president Arun Jaitley decided enough was enough and sacked the entire Ranji panel, along with the assistant coach of the team, for the remaining part of the season.

In a clear message to the Sports Committee that no interference would be tolerated in selection matters, Mr. Jaitley summoned the Executive Committee on Wednesday morning and the "unanimous" decision saw Anil Jain, Bantu Singh, Sunil Khanna and Vivek Razdan lose their jobs as selectors, while Maninder Singh Jaggi was relieved of his responsibility as assistant coach.

New panel

The newly-appointed selection panel will comprise former players of repute — Chetan Chauhan (chairman), Vinay Lamba and Surender Khanna — with DDCA Sports secretary Sunil Dev as the convenor. At its first meeting on Wednesday, the selectors made two changes from the team that suffered a humiliating defeat against Himachal Pradesh by replacing off-spinner Yogesh Sachdeva and batsman Gaurav Chhabra with all-rounder Kuldeep Rawat and promising off-spinner Victor Wilkins.

The DDCA resolution said, "In view of the fact that some recent decisions of the selection committee of the Ranji Trophy lack the appearance of fairness and are not being taken on cricketing consideration alone, the Executive Committee hereby decides to supersede and dissolve the selection committee with immediate effect."

The DDCA president was livid at the manner in which the selectors added a 16th member to the team for the last two matches of the North Zone one-day league.

According to the DDCA General Secretary Sneh Bansal, "The name was added without permission of the Executive Committee and the player was from outside the 21 picked for the season. This was the reason for this unprecedented action."

Succumbing to pressure

The selectors had obviously succumbed to extraneous pressure and sent a list of 16 players for Mr. Jaitley's approval. The selectors had their own compulsions too. Having received threats from supporters of this university cricketer, the selectors had pleaded for security and demanded a police complaint be lodged at the behest of the DDCA. But the move to pick him, on non-cricketing grounds, spelt doom for the selectors, who had otherwise also come under fire for their overall functioning.

"We had told the selectors not to yield to outside pressure. We wanted all selections on merit and performances. It is unfortunate that some certain selections were not justified and it was thus decided to remove the entire Ranji selection committee.

"We were concerned at the happenings and were convinced that Delhi cricket's interest was not protected. We pledge to improve the image of Delhi cricket. We are aware of wrong doings in the junior teams too but will need time to cleanse the system. A beginning has been made," declared Chauhan.

The team for Thursday's match against Haryana is Mithun Manhas (captain), Aakash Chopra, Shikhar Dhawan, Rajat Bhatia, Puneet Bisht, Amit Bhandari, Suhail Sharma, Chetnya Nanda, Ishant Sharma, Kuunal Lall, Virat Kohli, Kuldeep Rawat, Abhinav Bali, N.S. Negi and Victor Wilkins.

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