Jubilee Post News & Views
Ashok Bambi
We ,the well wisher of U.P cricket feel pretty bad and disappointed to see the mind set of UPCA’s chief and selectors when there is no change in their style of working.
First sight of change was evident when thèy decided to appoint former state player Arvind Kapoor as COACH of the Ranji team instead of an outsider.
But soon one can visualise the rat smell in appointment of senior and experienced player & coach Gyanendra Pande as coach of the under 23 team.
It is very simple that if they wanted to take the services of Gyanendra then he should have been given the charge of the Ranji team.
It was an insult to a senior and desrevig player. The best way was to appoint Arvind as coach of the under 23 team so that he could learn the job and get some valuable experience before getting his elevation to senior team in due course of time.
We were expecting big change in selection pattern on introduction of Praveen Kumar as Chairman of the selection committee . It seems appointment of captain was done by the chief of UPCA himself and therefore he was asked to do the job of selecting players only.
The question is why Karan Sharma ,the Delhi born cricketer was given the job once again when he was a utter failure in his previous assignment. His performance in Ranji Trophy was very mediocre but how and why he has been assigned this coveted post.
He created a World Record when he was made CAPTAIN of the Ranji team in his very first match. Thereafter he was given chance in every match despite his total failure in Ranji and as well as in Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches .
He just managed to make 108 runs in 7 Ranji matches and 60 odd runs in 8 matches of Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches. I have not heard or seen that a player getting so much of chances inspite of his total faìlure.
Even last year he could just manage 200 odd runs in 8 Ranji matches. After all he is not Mike Brearly. One thing is sure the pitch at Green Park will be absolutely flat so that he could make few runs to prove me wrong.
It was totally unfair to make Aryan Juyal his deputy when he scored mammoth runs as captain last year. Aryan got 771 runs including 2 centuries and one double century in 8 matches and was in ten top batsmen list of players who played Ranji trophy in 2024-26 season. Aryan was elevated and selected in Central Zone team as well as for Rest of India team for Irani Trophy this year. It clearly shows that NAMAN was given the Captain’s job not because of cricketing abilities but for some other reasons.
I feel sorry for Praveen Kumar as he was not given a free hand to choose the captain as well as the players. U.P will never perform as long as outsiders are there because they are only interested in their own performance . Please give free hand to Praveen Kumar and selectors to choose the team to best of their knowledge and experience. NO OUTSIDER PRESSURE SHOULD BE THERE.
