Captain Gambhir dictates terms, has his own set of players

With the weather clement, a lot more people turned out at the Ferozeshah Kotla on Wednesday than had dropped in at any day last week. There was an added attraction too --- the Ranji Trophy  squad had been announced. There were happy faces, sad faces, surprised faces and angry faces. To give details of everyone’s reaction would take a lot of time but you could see all sorts of reactions. The only man who probably would have walked home happy and laughing was the team captain Gautam Gambhir. These days he is behaving like he owns the Ranji team, some say he is almost like a dictator. And the choice of the squad shows that he was probably the only one who spoke in selection matters. Of course, successful stint with the Kolkata Knight Riders has helped him get that chip on the shoulder. And no doubt he has been treated unfairly in a way at the national level. But then this is life and this is cricket. It brings the best down to earth.

With Virender Sehwag and Mithun Manhas out of the team and moving to Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, there was always talk that Gambhir, Unmukt Chand and Rajat Bhatia will play a key role. But the door on Bhatia was shut. There are different reasons being attributed to it.

Tapeshwar Tyagi, who was the manager with the one-day team in Dharamsala last season, says that one wouldn’t stand in slip position, the other wouldn’t move from slip. Virender Sehwag didn’t field anywhere else except slips while Bhatia wouldn’t field in the slip at all. This made Gambhir angry. Some also talk of the fact that Bhatia never moved up the batting order despite being asked to take responsibility. He was enjoying the game in the lower order, scoring plenty of runs off the old ball when the opposition had lost bite. The youngsters would be pushed up and sacrificed.

In a confrontation in Dharamsala, Gambhir had blasted both Sehwag and Bhatia. We know what the media will carry --- all goodie stuff that Gambhir never had any issues with Bhatia and that he was his friend and that team comes first. And that the two have played almost the same number of matches for KKR. But all that is poppycock. Gambhir had serious issues with Bhatia, his one-time favourite at the KKR. And there could be genuine reasons for this dislike as well.

In fact last season, when Chetan Chauhan had floated the idea of having Bhatia as the skipper, Gambhir was pretty livid. This was during the season. Chauhan saab, in his love for Bhatia, had once irked former Delhi skipper Shikhar Dhawan too by pushing Bhatia in the hot seat.

Delhi began well last season, then struggled in away games. They lost their quarterfinal to a very weak Mumbai, who probably fielded their worst-ever side.

If Gambhir thinks that Delhi players are too old, he has some valid reason. He has probably rightly brought in youngsters. But are they capable and what about the ageing bowling line-up? Is he and the selectors trying to suggest that there are no bowlers in Delhi other than Pawan Suyal, Sumit Narwal and Pradeep Sangwan. These are bowlers going over the hill and still the selectors have kept faith in them. And no, they are not incisive. The only youngster who has been brought in is Sarang Rawat and that boy failed BCCI’s age test a couple of seasons back. Parvinder Awana is the only one who looks the part. Add some of Narwal’s grit. But that is all.

Let us now look at the team....

Batting: Vaibhav Rawal, Milind Kumar, Nitish Rana, Yogesh Nagar and Dhruv Shorey make the young line-up that’ll help Gambhir and Unmukt.
Rawal played one Ranji match last year and scored 11. He has been considered very promising but he has not had any decent score since he made his debut. And he is too slow.
Nitish Rana is one quality lad. He plays for LB Shastri Club and sources people him so much so that one said that Sehwag asked him to come over to Haryana. Don’t know whether its true. But the lad seems to have a lot of promise.
Yogesh Nagar has been on and off. He didn’t play any Ranji match last year. Played three one-dayers and scored a total of 41 at the average of 13.67. In T20s he made 95 in four matches at 23.33. But over the years he hasn’t done anything to merit place in Delhi team now. Nagar’s action was found suspect and he was told not to bowl.
Dhruv Shorey had played two U-23 matches last year and averaged 16.33. There is no place for Mohit Sharma, who had shown his mettle. The selectors said they discussed him for a long, long time though. Jaideep Chauhan, whose dad Padam lobbied very hard, didn’t make it either though he impressed with a century against Mumbai last season for Delhi U-23. Normally if you hit a ton against Delhi’s arch-rivals Mumbai in age group cricket, you are considered a talent for the top.

Pace bowling: Sumit Narwal, Pradeep Sangwan, Pawan Suyal, Parvinder Awana and Sarang Rawat.
Narwal is 33 and Gambhir likes the fact that he can bat a bit too. But what’s the point when he has to do a batsman’s job. He does pick wickets but often when opposition scores a lot.
Pradeep Sangwan, even though officially is 24 looks like a 32 year old injury-hit medium pacer, who trundles in to deliver the ball without being able to even bend for a little extra effort. He was banned by the BCCI for a year for having tested positive. He took five wickets in three innings last year and a couple of them were tailenders. But he says he has worked on fitness. So let’s see.
Pawan Suyal has played just three Ranji matches over the last two years. He hasn’t got a wicket and has given away plenty of runs.
Sarang Rawat was supposed to be a player of promise. But unfortunately his career has not blossomed. A couple of years back, while playing for U-19s, he was found cheating. The DDCA hadn’t sent his age certificate, so the BCCI got his test done and he was found overage.
Spin bowling: The biggest question was over off-spinner with Manan Sharma almost a certainty as the left-arm spinner. Manan was lucky though last year with Delhi playing all their home matches at underprepared tracks at the Kotla.
And for some reason the wise men kept Manan’s competition Pawan Negi out. Negi was on Wednesday selected for the India A squad that’ll play South Africa in a warm-up game at the Palam grounds.
The selectors kept offie Shivam Sharma, a success at the IPL and a certainty in the squad, in reserves but selected Pulkit Narang, a trainee of Virat Kohli’s coach Rajkumar Sharma. There have been talks over the fact that Virat Kohli might have put in a word to the officials to take care of the kid from his coach’s West Delhi Cricket Academy. That could be true but it could also be out of thin air. Narang has picked 40-odd wickets in the DDCA league this season and for once you feel that a youngster is being given a chance on the basis of league performance which finally proves that league is at least of some value. There aren’t many young off-spinners around with Manoj Chauhan, having been tried and discarded. Mohd Bilal is another youngster whose name was doing the rounds.
Wicketkeeper: Mohit Ahlawat was the biggest surprise having not played any age group cricket. With Delhi struggling to get a decent wicketkeeper with Puneet Bisht not doing enough. His replacement was Rahul Yadav and the two were juggled last year. Neither did exceptionally well. However, Ahlawat was pluck out of nowhere. The LB Shastri kid (now don’t get surprised if I say Gambhir has a soft corner for that club), scored seven centuries and played two sterling innings. He made 180 against Sonnet and rescued his team from 102/9 to chase down 240. But this was all in DDCA league cricket. Ahlawat is from Sonepat and had failed to make the cut for Haryana even this year. But Delhi and Gambhir found him to their liking. Ideally, they should have gone for Rishabh Pant, the U-19 keeper who is among the India U-19 probables. But they somehow didn’t.

Honestly, it looks like Gambhir was the only one with a say in the selections. Ajay Jadeja didn’t say a thing. But two games into the season, things could be different if Delhi craps. It could be Gambhir in the backseat and people criticising him for backing players from LB Shastri and those of his liking. It could bring Jaddu in the picture. 

Nets continue, selectors pay visit

With no coaching staff on Wednesday morning, Anil Jain (in white
shirt) and Maqsood Karim (in yellow shirt) handled the nets.  

A day after the appointment of selection committee panel, chairman of selectors Vinay Lamba and co-selector Hari Gidwani made an appearance at Delhi’s Ranji Trophy nets, on Thursday.

Govt nominees step in to save the day, name Ajay Jadeja as Delhi coach, set up selection panels

Tuesday ended on a bitter note for many officials at the home of Delhi cricket. All the top warring Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) officials got kicked on their backside as the government nominees swung into action following confusion over the appointment of coaches and selectors. With the judges, overseeing sports working committee elections, not declaring the results even after two weeks have passed and they’ve been into the election process for about 80 days, DDCA’s government nominees finally put their foot down and took a strong decision, appointing two sets of selectors – for junior and senior cricket and also appointing Ajay Jadeja as the chief coach of Delhi cricket.

That should put the catfight among officials to rest, at least for now. In DDCA’s parlance, ‘government nominees ne officials ko phatte lagaya’.

The three nominees, Parvesh Verma, Rajan Tiwari and Sunil Yadav sent out a letter saying they had been upset with the news stories published across all newspapers on Saturday, the 12^th September, that ridiculed DDCA’s factionalism which resulted in three sets of teams going out to the press. Equally worse was the tussle over appointment of coaches and mentor.

The trio stated that they are appointing Ajay Jadeja as chief coach of Delhi replacing Vijay Dahiya from last year. Dahiya had been a favourite of Vinod Tihara group. The nominees have set up a senior selection committee, which will look after the Ranji Trophy and U-23 teams with Vinay Lamba as chairman. Hari Gidwani and Rahul Sanghvi will be the other two selectors in the three-member panel.

The three-member junior selection committee will be chaired by Nikhil Chopra, who will be assisted by Suresh Luthra and Sunil Valson.

The government nominees had proposed this and the proposal was duly signed by the 12 directors.

It has been learnt that vice-president Chetan Chauhan has threatened to resign from the post following this decision. He had proposed the name of Madan Lal as mentor, which was protested by Vinod Tihara group. Surinder Khanna was appointed as assistant coach by Ashok Sharma group. After attending the first day of nets, he didn’t appear on the second day.

Apparently, captain Gautam Gambhir was annoyed at all the events and didn’t turn up on the second day when the Delhi team only had their warm-up and fitness exercises. There is a belief that he had a whiff of things to come so he didn’t attend the camp.

Amid all this confusion and expecting that there will be brouhaha over selection of the team, the nominees took this strong step. Some unconfirmed sources say that the push had come from the top echelons of polity, the finance minister of the country, who had been the president of the DDCA till last year and who was apprised of the situation.

Whatever be the case and whoever was behind this, the decision has at least saved Delhi cricket’s face for the time being.

Gambhir turns up on first day of nets as judges' blunder puts cricket in limbo

The scene in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) is grim to say the least. And with both the warring factions at loggerheads and closely tied following the sports working committee elections, there is little chance any one will give way. And there is no chance of announcement of a result anytime soon. Which means cricket will continue the way it has been and there will be push and pull from both the factions regarding players’ inclusion.

After days of speculation, Monday eventually saw the camp starting with captain Gautam Gambhir leading the charge. There were about 40-45 players under his wings. Anil Jain, of the Vinod Tihara faction and who had signed one of the three teams, was there as net coordinator and looked pretty cheerful in his office. Surender Khanna, who had been appointed assistant coach in the list sent out by the DDCA executive committee director Ashok Sharma too was there at nets. Madan Lal, who has been appointed mentor by Chetan Chauhan who also sent out a list, will most likely join on Wednesday as he has taken off on Monday and Tuesday. He had told the Hindustan Times newspaper that he will turn up only when things get sorted.

However, the crux of the matter has been the judges’ decision and how they blundered on a simple process. Normally, you don’t question judges’ decision. However, they could have easily avoided all this confusion by first deciding on the ownership of the five disputed clubs and then going ahead with the elections. That they didn’t, has brought the situation to such a pass.

They could have easily let the decision on the ownership be sent to the court or could have allowed both the factions of the two clubs to vote. But they didn’t and first went for the elections. Had the election results been one-sided then there would have been no issue. But unfortunately, the results have come down to a very close fight, 6-4 in Tihara’s favour. Now whichever faction he favours with his decision in the case of ownership of the five clubs, the other one is bound to go to the court as the stakes are high. So as of now the judges’ decision to drag this on for so long and get the priorities wrong has put the entire sports committee in a limbo and open to compromises.  

Three teams for Delhi Ranji, which one is the right one!

By now you may have gleaned the papers as to what is happening in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). We don’t need to tell you that three lists of probables have been sent out for the Delhi Ranji camp and that apart from an issue over players, there is a brouhaha over the choice of coaches.

While Chetan Chauhan is hell bent on having Madan Lal as the head coach-cum-mentor, the rival Vinod Tihara group, who form last year’s sports working committee, have not named anyone as coach. They have put the onus on captain Gautam Gambhir and want him to handle the team.

Gambhir was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times as saying that he is still not aware of the team, coach or the plans. “I have no knowledge of the team, camp, coach or how things will progress. I have been preparing for the upcoming season at a personal level. However, as far as the squad is concerned, I am yet to be informed. This is DDCA’s job,” he was quoted by the Hindustan Times.

Interestingly Gambhir and last year’s Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya gel well. The two formed a team during last year’s Ranji season and have had a successful partnership in the Indian Premier League at the helm of Kolkata Knight Riders. Dahiya has supposedly been the man being pushed by Vinod Tihara’s group. And Chauhan has been objecting to his appointment. It remains to be seen how it all develops. However, Naresh Sharma ‘Tappu’ said that they have shortlisted 2-3 names for the post of coach.

Ashok Sharma, a DDCA director sent out his own list and he pushed the name of former India keeper Surender Khanna in the list. It will be interesting to see how all this folds out on Monday morning, the day of the camp.

We are publishing all the three lists, so that you get an idea as to what players are being pushed by whom.

The two judges, who have been appointed at 10 lakh rupees for the entire season, however, are still sitting on the results with no headway in sight. Which faction has won is still not clear and if there is still no decision on the five disputed clubs on whose votes the entire thing rests, these things will get worse.

As of now Tihara group leads 6-4. And if it stays like this, there are bound to be fireworks. 

Analysing Delhi Ranji team

The Delhi team that has been selected for the first Ranji Trophy match against Saurashtra contains no surprises. Ashish Nehra has gone a step further and rested himself even at the start of the season. Nehra played in the Vijay Hazare one-dayers in Himachal Pradesh and was below par in helpful conditions. In previous seasons he has refrained from playing two back-to-back Ranji matches as his body doesn’t allow it. But this resting at the start of the season without even getting your body taxed is a new thing. Any updates on his fitness. We know that he is harbouring World Cup hopes and it is strange that he feels he can last the entire high pressure world cup despite his fragile body.
The other major inclusion is of Pradeep Sangwan. Sangi, the left-arm seamer, is coming off a doping ban. He is a handy seamer but only handy. He can’t go all the way and deliver really quick stuff and if the wicket is less supportive, he can be no good. But he is still included thanks to his experience and also some backing from Virender Sehwag, who rates him high. Sangi said that he has worked a lot hard on his fitness. How much, only time and his performance will tell. To start with, he has a good place to start with --- the Roshanara Club grounds, which are very supportive for seamers.
The news also is that Mithun Manhas is injured. And he has been replaced by Himmat Singh, the U-19 Delhi skipper who is apparently rated highly by everyone, including chief selector Yashpal Singh. Himmat has two fifties and one big century against Tripura in the Cooch Behar Trophy. He is one for the future but will he get to play in a star-studded line-up and will he perform on a testing Roshanara wicket remains to be seen.
Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Unmukt Chand will be the cynosure of all eyes despite their failure in the Vijay Hazare one-dayers. Sehwag says he still harbours world cup hopes. Well, he better prove to really catch a flight down to Australia. There is a feeling that he doesn’t stand a chance as he squandered the last remaining opportunity in the domestic one-dayers and he opted out of the zonal one-dayers, the Deodhar Trophy. But a couple blistering, big knocks in Ranji may help him as he is a big name. Gambhir too has been struggling. He is getting a bit more runs that Viru paaji but Gauti looks ungainly and is not inspiring confidence these days. He too may have to really dig deep. He wants a result, has taken a risk by opting for the tough Roshanara Club grounds for a result, but it’ll be tough work for him as a batsman. Unmukt comes up with gems but not when he is playing for Delhi. This has irked the selection panel, which even asked coach Vijay Dahiya if there is a need to replace him. But Unmukt, it seems has become a brand, big and promising enough for Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir to let him go for Deodhar instead of them and for national selector Vikram Rathour to back him.
Puneet Bisht, despite some below average showings, retains his spot while Rajat Bhatia, the only player who has consistently produced performances will again hold the key.
Navdeep Saini, Gambhir-backed lad, will again be part of the pace attack, along with his close friend Sumit Narwal, Pradeep Sangwan and hard-working Parvinder Awana.

 

Yashpal takes back resignation, claims Dev

On Wednesday, DDCA sports secretary circulated a letter saying that Yashpal Sharma has agreed to take back his resignation and continue in his capacity as the chief selector of Delhi team. Yashpal had quit after differences over selection matters and some ego issues that afflicted senior players. It seems that some sort of assurances have been given to Yashpal before he agreed. Dev and the new sports committee are seemingly not that keen in having Chetan Chauhan back as the chairman.

Yashpal quits as chief selector after Delhi crash out of Vijay Hazare knockouts

Delhi has disappointed once again. Despite the presence of so many stars, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ashish Nehra and Unmukt Chand, the fancied team barely qualified for the Vijay Hazare national one-dayers knockouts and then lost to Mumbai. The loss was hard enough on chief selector Yashpal Sharma, who quit from his post all of a sudden.
While DDCA president Sneh Bansal says Yashpal had prior personal commitments, the reality is far from that. Yashpal was pressured into selecting players he did not want from some DDCA officials as well as the sports committee, according to sources.
One of the officials said that Gambhir was given the side of his choice and he didn’t want any changes even when they were losing badly.
Former Delhi cricketer and junior selector Narendra Negi took out the ire on facebook, saying, “This had to happen. Players who have scored runs and taken wickets were not even picked in the squad.”
There were demands to put Shelly Shaurya, Aditya Kaushik, Pratyush Singh and Kshitiz Sharma in the team for the final games of league phase which Yashpal was avoiding. He even thought of bringing in U-19 captain Himmat Singh into the side. Himmat has been scoring runs and made 181 in the victory over Tripura in Cooch Behar Trophy.
Apart from that Yashpal seemed to have been fed up with the constant bickering in the Delhi team. All the seniors were hell bent on playing. Only upon the threat of not getting selected in the North Zone side for Deodhar Trophy side, did Sehwag and Gambhir decide to stay away and let Unmukt Chand play. Chand too hasn’t been doing any good for Delhi. But national selector Vikram Rathour wanted him in the North Zone as he considers his talent valuable.
Gambhir and Sehwag also seem to be having clash of egos. Gambhir has been backing Sumit Narwal while Sehwag wants Pradeep Sangwan. The selectors say that they can’t simply draft in Sangwan as he has just returned from doping ban. One of the officials asked, “Is there no pace bowler in Delhi that can replace these oldies?”
There are plenty but nobody is thinking over that.
“Those who have helped bring in the proxies during the elections are bound to have a sy in selection,” says a senior official.
As far as latest reports are to be believed, Chetan Chauhan may return as the chairman of selectors. But the fact is that Delhi are in huge turmoil and the seniors are not helping.