MCA appoints Naik; managing committee member to oppose his appointment

However,Memon questioned MCA’s logic of appointing two selectors from the same club and company. Naik and Rajesh Sutar,who too is a selector,are from Tata Sports Club. Naik is also believed to be a close associate of MCA president Ravi Savant and many see this as one of the reasons for him getting the job. “Naik and Sutar come from same club (National CC) and they are from same company (Tata). It is be unfair to have two person from same club. Ghavri has played more Test than Naik,he should have been leading the job,” Memon added.

When contacted,MCA joint-secretaries Nitin Dalal and PV Shetty both were unavailable for comment. Meanwhile,ignoring the controversy altogether,Naik said his priority will be to select right players in the team. The former India opener and Mumbai captain Naik has been associated with local cricket for long. In fact,the likes of Zaheer Khan and Wasim Jaffer are the products of his club National CC.

“I want to select those players who have been performing consistently. There have been instances where talented guys were overlooked despite performing well in local cricket. At the same time,it is important to see how many players can go ahead to represent the country from Mumbai. We have a rich culture. We have only few players now in the Indian team. So it is important to give youngsters right opportunity and adequate time to settle down,” Naik explained.

Naik feels that giving chance players who are between 19 to 21 will not only help built Mumbai side but it will build good future. “If any of the youngsters perform consistently for couple of years then there is chance of him playing for India. We have a good team right now and our goal will be to improve the team further,” he added.

Surprisingly,Mumbai didn’t continue with Satish Samant under whom Mumbai had won under 19 title one season ago.

Committes: Senior Selection Committee: Sudhir Naik – Chairman; Karsan Ghavri Deepak Jadhav,Raju Sutar,Sulakshan Kulkarni (Coach); Under 25 Selection Committee: Sudhir Naik – Chairman,Karsan Ghavri,Deepak Jadhav,Raju Sutar,Vinayak Samant (Coach). Under 19 Selection Committee: Chandrakant Pandit – Chairman,Mandar Phadke,Arun Shetty,Shridhar Mandale,Vinod Raghvan (Coach); Under 16 Selection Committee: Ravi Thakkar – Chairman,Milind Tamhane,Atul Ranade,Nilesh Bhosale,Prashant Shetty – Coach; Under 14 Selection Committee: Ramesh Vajge – Chairman,Ajit Sawant,Prashant Sawant,Bimesh Shah,Deepak Patil – Coach; Senior Women’s Selection Committee: Vrunda Bhagat – Chairperson,Leya Francis,Hemangi Naik,Shreyas Khanolkar,Devika Palshikar – Coach; U 19 Women’s Selection Committee: Arti Vaidya – Chairperson; Sangeeta Kamat,Aparna Kambli,Jayesh Dadarkar,Sanjay Gaitonde – Coach.