Question raised on my credibility, fumes Aquib

The player’s auction for the T20 Mumbai League took place at a city hotel on Saturday night after last-ditch arrangements and there were quite a few goof ups, which perhaps cost deserving players an opportunity to feature in the inaugural league.

All rounder Aquib Shaikh, who represented Mumbai in a Ranji game in 2010 was left fuming after his first name was missing from the players auction list. He was mentioned on the list as A. Shaikh, which according to him, confused the franchise owners, about who he was. It was also unclear as to why Aquib featured in the developmental players list and not in the first class list like Ankush Jaiswal, who had also represented Mumbai only once in a FC game.

Aquib went unsold and his case wasn’t an isolated one. There were five more names (A Shaikh, B Mehta, G Chavan, S Kadam and S Khan) in a list of around 231 players, whose first names were missing. All of these players went unsold.

When contacted, a MCA official referred to an office bearer, who defended giving names as mentioned in the form. He further added that all the names (with first letters missing) were clearly mentioned during the auction. He even identified one of those, A. Ansari, as Azhar Ansari who was picked by Mumbai North Central squad. However, there was an Azhar Ansari already in the same list of developmental players to create more confusion.

“I had submitted a fully filled auction form and made it into the final list of the players undergoing the hammer. I was addressed as ‘A. Shaikh’ and not Aquib Shaikh. Everyone in the (auction) room wondered about my identity.. This obviously confused the team owners and my name was withheld,” Aquib fumed.

Aquib, who is the son of cricket coach Mubin Shaikh in Kalyan, who had famously mentored thousand run scorer Pranav Dhanawade, said that he wouldn’t have felt let down if his name was addressed properly and then remained unsold.

“I have played a first-class game and represented Mumbai across different age categories. I have also refined my skills in Australia on a BCCI scholarship. I was in decent form and wasn’t that bad a player to not be picked in the auction at all. Even if I wasn’t picked, I would not have felt so bad as I am feeling now. As a player, it’s quite disappointing to have gone through this. A question mark was raised on my identity,” added the 27-year-old who plays for New Hind Sporting Club in the Kanga League and is currently representing the same team in the Young Comrade Shield. He also took to social media to demand an explanation by tagging a few MCA officials.

Top unsold players
Shardul Thakur, who like Rohit Sharma is also part of the Indian team, went unsold. Skipper Aditya Tare is unfit and hence remained unsold. Both were in the icon players list. Mumbai’s first class players Kaustubh Pawar, Praful Waghela and Javed Khan went unsold. Minad Manjrakar who represented Mumbai recently also went unsold alongwith Ankush Jaiswal.

Comeback sojourn
The League will provide a comeback opportunity for the likes of Rajesh Pawar, Paul Valthaty, Vinit Indulkar, Yogesh Takawale and Harmeet Singh. Pawar, who heads the Mumbai U-19 selection panel, has been permitted to play and was in the developmental players list with a base price of 50,000. The 38-year-old left-arm spinner went to Mumbai North for Rs 80,000. The remaining three players were sold in the first class players category. The 25-year-old left-arm spinner Harmeet shifted to Vidarbha and Jammu Kashmir after not finding a place in the Mumbai senior team. Former Mumbai Indians and Maharashtra wicket-keeper batsman Takwale is also making a comeback to competitive cricket at the age of 33. He last played for Tripura in 2015