J&K Cricket Association (JKCA) has come under criticism over selection of J&K team for T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament.
The selected players who were in Jammu left for Andhra Pradesh on Monday. They are scheduled to play the matches. Among others the 16-member team includes Irfan Pathan and Parvez Rasool. The team was selected from among 25 shortlisted players who were part of coaching camp held in Jammu.
This time also, JKCA didn’t make selection process public. Even the information about team’s departure was kept a secret.
One of the dropped players, and once a premier fast bowler of the state, Abid Nabi lashed out at JKCA. “The entire selection process was a drama,” he said.
Abid, who had made it to the list of 25 shortlisted players, after performing well in trial matches, questioned why he was dropped. “Nobody is telling me why I was dropped,” he said.
“In trial matches, I performed better than most of the players, both with the bat and the ball. Later, I was part of the coaching camp and my named had figured among probable to make to the final list,” said Nabi.
“My fitness is at par with any of the players selected and even better than some who have been included in team. Ever since the list came out I have been trying to contact JKCA officials and even Parvez Rasool but no one is taking my calls,” he lamented.
Abid asserted that the selectors never watched players training during the coaching camp, and, according to him, the list was finalised “inside hotel room”.
“None of the selectors was in Jammu. I want to know on what basis the selection was made. They have selected a bowler from Jammu who has himself said ‘I am unfit’,” he said.
Apart from Abid, others left out include pacer Mohammad Mudhasir and Mumbai Indian’s Rasikh Salam. While Rasikh was in Mumbai training with the team, Mudhasir was part of the camp and was considered to be automatic choice.
“It is a joke to drop proven performer and most constant bowler in entire state Mohammad Mudhasir. He was equally brilliant in One-days and tests he. Even his batting in one-days was better than most of top J&K batsman,” said a senior cricketer.
Another former cricketer said that while it was good thing to include youngsters in shorter format of the game, but at the same time they too raised question over selection process.
“One of the selected players is unfit and everyone knows it while as another star player is not good in shorter format. Dropping Mudhasir and Rasikh are questionable and selectors need to answer about dropping Abid too,” he said.
A JKCA official said the team was picked up by selectors and JKCA doesn’t interfere in the selection.
Team: Shubham Khajuria, Owais Shah, Shubham Pundir, Parvez Rasool, Irfan Pathan, Waseem Raza, Manzoor Pandav, Abdul Samad, Jatin Wadhwan, Mujtaba Yousuf, Umar Nazir, Suryansh Raina, Ram Dayal, Bandeep Singh, Adil Reshi and Shahrukh Dar.