Drama at Ferozeshah Kotla after Nagar left out of U-25 team

Few days back Delhi Cricket read a story in a national daily about a former state cricketer, who created ruckus in Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) years ago. Navdeep Tomar had a tiff with selectors after he was left out of Ranji Trophy in 2006-07. The daily quoted him as saying that he has now found a good life in Bollywood, had his first release and doesn’t want to return to the cricket field and wanted to live in peace and harmony.

Tomar returned to the Kotla on Monday afternoon, and reportedly had some harsh words for U-25 coach Rajiv Vinayak and the selectors. He asked them to resign for not doing their job properly. The sports committee was pissed off with the incident and even thought about calling the police.

The cause of the furore was the team that was picked to play Karnataka in the Col CK Nayudu Trophy. Tomar's friend Yogesh Nagar, a veteran of 15 Ranji games and 16 List A matches besides countless T20 games for Delhi and Daredevils, was surprisingly left out of the team led by Shelly Shaurya, a surprise pick for captaincy. Shaurya was playing in U-25 for the first time and was given the lead role ahead of seven players, who had far more experience of playing for Delhi senior team. That had already caused controversy. Ignoring Nagar added to the controversy.
The decision to leave out Nagar irked not just Tomar but everyone, even the chairman of selectors for Ranji Trophy Chetan Chauhan and also former India cricketer Surender Khanna, who made his displeasure known by sending SMSes to various officials, criticizing the decision and saying that Nagar deserved a place in Ranji squad, leave alone U-25 team.

Delhi, not surprisingly, were shot out for just 146 in 50.5 overs and the batsmen looked more like cats on a hot tin roof.

Opener Abhishek Kapoor and one-down Nipun Malhotra, shock inclusions ahead of Nagar, failed miserably and so did others. Only left-arm spinner Varun Sood (47 not out) and opener Aditya Kaushik (36) resisted. The rest budged.

The current sports committee says that both Kapoor and Malhotra are good players. Last year though, one of them had three successive ducks and the other failed to get even a fifty in age-group cricket.

Asked about their credentials, an official jokingly said, “Well, it is their parents who play cricket.”

Nevertheless, tart comments aside, the sports committee had a reason to explain the exclusion of Nagar. “He has been out due to injury. He can’t be played straightaway,” confided an official.

Delhi’s captain, Shelly Shaurya (0/30 off 8 overs), however, opened the bowling when Karnataka’s turn came to bat. Sunny Sehrawat, his opening partner, took 2/28 to give hosts some joy.

And by the way, the Delhi U-25 squad of 16 didn’t even have space for left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, a regular at Delhi Daredevils and an experienced state player (two Ranji, 5 List As and 29 T20s). Watch this space for more naatak!

SCORES

Delhi U-25 146 (Varun Sood 47*, Aditya Kaushik 36, HS Sharath 5/37) vs Karnataka 84/2 (Mayank Agarwal 33 not out)