8 Pondy players scrapped from Hazare Trophy
CHENNAI:Just two days after the start, Vijay Hazare Trophy has plunged into controversy. Following complaints over the eligibility of Puducherry players, the BCCI on Thursday withdrew the ‘special status’ given to the Union Territory (UT).
Eight players — X Thalaivan Sargunam, Nikhilesh Surendran, Iqlas N, Abdul Safar VS, Yash Jadhav, Sagar Trivedi, Ashith Rajiv and Shashank Singh — had their registrations cancelled. The Cricket Association of Pondicherry (CAP) added seven new players to the squad for the rest of the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
a century against Tamil Nadu in
the Vijay Hazare Elite Group C
match, in Chennai on Thursday
| d sampathkumar
The matter should have been sorted out earlier, considering that player registrations for the tournament had been done well in advance. That it took objections from other teams in Puducherry’s group for the BCCI to react doesn’t reflect well on the board. When the BCCI included nine new teams in the domestic fold following Supreme Court orders, it laid out clear selection criteria: 1) Proof of birth certificate that the player was born in the state or 2) Was an employee of any organisation in the state for one year or 3) A student in an institution under the jurisdiction before August 31, 2017.
And this is where the problem starts. The CAP claims it got a letter from CoA August 21, 2018, stating that it is the parent body for selecting players for the UT team. The CAP wrote to the BCCI asking for relaxation on this rule for Puducherry, since they got recognition only this year. “We got the letter of recognition on August 21. So how can we go back and select those who were in Puducherry before August 31, 2017? We asked for relaxation of this rule from the BCCI, which was granted,” a CAP official said.
What is not clear is who the CAP approached while demanding the relaxation of rules. The BCCI only woke up after Uttarakhand and Chandran, a player who plays in matches conducted by the Pondicherry Cricket Association — a rival faction of CAP — wrote to the manager of Anti-Corruption Unit saying none of the Puducherry players selected for Vijay Hazare are from the UT. Based on this complaint and by Ratnakar Shetty, who is currently the convenor of Uttarakhand team, the BCCI withdrew the ‘special status’, which meant a relaxation of Rules 2 & 3. The cut-off date was extended to August 31, 2018, instead of August 31, 2017.
Among the players whose registrations were cancelled is Sargunam, who the CAP claims has migrated to Puducherry because his employers transferred him. He is yet to receive a no-objection certificate from Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, with who he is registered and plays in the first-division league. CAP claims he doesn’t need an NOC because he hasn’t represented TN in the last three years. But he was part of the Madurai Panthers team in the Tamil Nadu Premier League, a tournament conducted under the aegis of TNCA.
Shashank and Sagar represented Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last January. All of them required NOCs, which the CAP claims the players have. But their concerned units deny. “We have not given any false documents. These players have either migrated to Puducherry or have taken up a course in a local college. We included them only because the BCCI relaxed the norm for us,” the CAP official said.
Saba Karim, BCCI’s general manager of cricket operations, said, “We are looking into some of the issues raised. They picked the players only after there was communication from the BCCI that a special status had been given,” he said.
South teams in action today
Bengaluru: Karnataka vs Mumbai
Delhi: Delhi vs Hyderabad
Delhi: Kerala vs Odisha
Chennai: Services vs Tamil Nadu
Anand: Puducherry vs Uttarakhand
Injured Ashwin to rehab at NCA
CHENNAI: Ravichandran Ashwin will head to the National Cricket Academy on Saturday for a rehab programme. The off-spinner, who played four Tests in England, missed the fifth after aggravating a hip injury. It also meant he couldn’t turn up for Worcestershire in the County Championship. It is learnt Ashwin has a minor groin muscle strain and been told to undergo strength and conditioning sessions. With the West Indies Test series beginning on November 4 and the squad expected next week, Ashwin might be racing against time for the yo-yo test.