Pre-season blues for Mumbai

Cricket has taken a back seat amid controversies within the Mumbai Cricket Association. The Kanga League, which was set to start from July 8, has been affected owing to incessant rains and Sunday’s top division matches are already washed out. The League could have given Mumbai players some playing time as their pre-season training has been badly hit.

Last weekend, Mumbai’s entry into K. Thimmappaiah Memorial All India cricket tournament organised by Karnataka State Cricket Association in Bengaluru was withdrawn at the last minute, as there was no prior fitness camp held. But there is hope amid despair as the much delayed Off Season Training Camp is set to finally kick off on Monday at MCA’s indoor academy in Bandra Kurla Complex. The probables have been training on their own for challenges ahead of the season.

It is learnt that the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel had selected the 27 probables on June 11 itself but their official announcement and camp got delayed as MCA took over a month to announce coach Sameer Dighe’s replacement after his resignation in early June. Even after Vinayak Samant was announced as the new coach last week, MCA was still on the lookout for a physiotherapist and trainer which they appointed only on Thursday. They still have to fill in for bowling coach Omkar Salvi who has resigned and moved to Kolkata Knight Riders Academy for a coaching assignment.

Mumbai’s senior player, Abhishek Nayar, who was dropped before the quarter-final last season to keep him stranded on 99 First Class games was a notable omission from the 27 probables list. But Nayar, who has donned the role of mentor successfully and played a key role in rejuvenating the career of Indian wicketkeeper batsman, Dinesh Karthik, has followed the KKR skipper to Kolkata. He is now the lead coach and mentor of KKR Academy.

Senior batsman, Bravish Shetty, who was a prolific scorer in T20 Mumbai League earlier this year has also been overlooked, as selectors have preferred youngsters. Arman Jaffer who missed the last season due to an injury has been included in the fitness camp which will be overseen by Samant, a physio and trainer. Arjun Tendulkar, who is part of India U19 team in Sri Lanka is in the Mumbai U-19 probables list along with young Musheer Khan. Pre-season camp for junior categories as well as women will take place from Monday.

This will be Samant’s first interaction with the senior Mumbai team as his first supposed assignment in Bengaluru never happened. Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur are also in the list but the latter two are currently in England as part of Indian Test team. Samant’s appointment came after some drama as former India players Rajesh Powar and Praveen Amre were the front-runners. Powar was overlooked as he had criticised MCA once but why he was shortlisted in the first place remains unanswered. Amre hadn’t applied and MCA’s Cricket Improvement Committee had waited for him as he had a role in Delhi Daredevils as well. All wasn’t smooth in the appointment of the coach and it came out in the open with the resignation of World Cup winning former India player, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, from CIC Committee, which also has former India skipper Ajit Wadekar, Karsan Ghavri, Amol Muzumdar, Sahil Kukreja and Kiran Mokashi. Vinayak Mane also has reportedly resigned as Mumbai U-16 coach.

The appointment of Samant as the head coach of the senior Mumbai team had surprised a few players who, according to sources, had expected names like Amre, Powar and Abey Kuruvilla to be ahead in the race as head coach. But they didn’t know Samant was also in contention and are ready to welcome the new coach, who brings experience of over 100 first class matches. Earlier, senior players had put forward the name of Omkar Salvi after MCA Managing Committee had sought their opinion on appointment of coach.

Dighe, according to sources, had encountered a few problems in handling senior players and Samant’s management skills will be put to the test in his first major assignment as coach.