Kiran More's nephew selected in Baroda squad despite failing fitness test

Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in this domestic season. They have once again come under the scanner for selecting a player in the team who failed the fitness test. Viraj Bhosale was included in the 15-man Baroda squad for the upcoming Vijay Hazare trophy. However, there are speculations that being the nephew of the former India wicketkeeper Kiran More worked in his favour.

When the 2017-18 season commenced, the selectors had insisted on the importance of the fitness of the players. BCA has also asked Yusuf Pathan who is returning to the squad after a five-month ban for failing a dope test to appear for a fitness test as a precondition to be eligible for selection. Yusuf took the test and cleared it was thus included in the squad.

Recently, the selectors were also questioned for excluding the skipper Irfan Pathan from the Ranji squad after just a couple of games despite performing well. Towards the end of the season, Irfan applied for a NOC as he wished to move out of Baroda who weren’t clearly eager to use his services and represent some other team. It seems that all is not well in the BCA and the selection blunders are also making things worse for the association.

Yusuf who was available for selection in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy wasn’t considered despite the fact that T20 cricket has been his forte. And has been picked in the squad now for the 50-over tournament.

BCA officials question the selectors

The BCA officials weren’t pleased a bit after Bhosale was selected in the team. They said that Viraj and Gurjinder Mann had failed in the 20-metre sprint, Run A 3 and Yo-yo tests which are done to test the fitness of the players.

“BCA management had earlier said that players’ fitness is very important but now they have selected Viraj despite not passing the fitness test. Then why take such tests?” the official was quoted as saying by Times of India.

However, when the secretary in-charge of BCA Snehal Parikh was contacted, he cleared that according to the report of the physio, Viraj was on the borderline and hence was picked. “The team physio gave a fitness report stating that Viraj’s report was borderline. The physio said that he is not unfit to play so the selectors decided to pick him up based on his performance. Yusuf will undergo fitness test on Saturday,” Parikh said.

Each time there has been a controversy in Baroda cricket Kiran More’s name crops up for being involved behind the scenes; he has, in turn, denied all such claims. But according to sources, it is the strong man who has been pulling the strings from behind the scenes. This time around as well he mentioned that he had nothing to do with the selection of Viraj Bhosale and he has not influenced selectors to pick him.

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