Senior cricketers protest BCA’s decision to axe Irfan Pathan

The senior cricketers of Baroda have protested the decision of Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) to axe Irfan Pathan from the Ranji squad. Earlier this week, the left-handed all-rounder was dropped from the team by the selectors citing his and the team’s performance issues. The decision was surprising for one and all as Irfan was appointed the skipper of the team for the whole season of the ongoing Ranji Trophy. However, his axing hasn’t gone well with his fans and have also blasted the state association on social media.

Reportedly, it is also being learnt that Irfan was dropped as he denied to select the spinner the selectors wanted in the playing XI. The politics in the association has led to the axing of the talented cricketer who had performed extremely well in the first two games. The team has been chopped and changed frequently by the selectors which certainly proves something is wrong with the officials. Also, it remains to be seen if BCCI and the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) takes any action on BCA.

Cricketers protest in Motibagh Stadium

The former cricketers of Baroda came together at Motibagh Stadium and decided to protest the decision of unjust on Irfan Pathan. They arranged a press conference and blasted the selection committee on air. “The committee which can remove the elected President, secretary can do anything. They removed the cricketers like Munaf Patel and now Irfan Pathan who played for both India and Baroda, and made their state famous with their performances,” said the Mehedi Sheikh, the former cricketer and also the coach.

“Irfan has played superbly for India and the whole country hails him for being from Baroda. It is very sad for these cricketers who have played for India and are being dropped here from the squad of Baroda. Whoever are the selectors, I want to ask them the reason of dropping Irfan Pathan. They made him captain and after only two matches they are saying he hasn’t performed and so he was dropped,” he continued fuming over the selectors.

He also feared that if the politics is going on in selecting the cricketers then it is not going to do any good to the state cricket in future and all the talent will be lost. “ Despite performing consistently the players are not invited to the training camp and the non-performing players are being selected in the squad. This means we should understand that some god father is working behind all this,” Sheikh added. He also questioned the job of CIC committee which includes the likes of Kiran More, Rakesh Parikh and Narayan Satam.

“CIC committee looks into the development of cricket in Baroda which have former cricketers like Kiran More, Rakesh Parikh and Narayan Satam. I would like to ask them if cricket is to be developed only to write the name on the board or on the paper. Neither of the three has been in ground to help the youngsters technically,” he concluded.

BCA SITUATION @RJohri @BCCIdomestic @BCCI @Cricketracker @MikkhailVaswani @MoriJainish @yavarpatni28 @Imdanish56 @ImSujjad @sruthibabu1 pic.twitter.com/7t2CCV2B9T

— Salman Dal (@i_am_salman97) October 31, 2017