Cricket’s brain drain: After Patil, it’s Robin

One more coach has become the victim of bad planning and irregular scheduling by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). After Ind...

One more coach has become the victim of bad planning and irregular scheduling by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). After India ‘A’ coach Sandeep Patil, who will leave next week to assist the Oman national team, comes the news that Under-19 coach Robin Singh too will not be available during the forthcoming series against England Under-19.

Singh — sitting idle because of the limited number of series the Under-19 team is part of — chose to say yes to a prior commitment, and will now be with the Hong Kong national cricket team. For about a year now, Singh has been the coach of the city-state, including in last year’s Asia Cup held in Sri Lanka.

Singh’s last assignment with the Under-19 side was in Bangladesh in early 2004 during the Under-19 World Cup.

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When it came to choosing between the India job and the Hong Kong one, Singh opted for the latter and with good reason: ‘‘Hong Kong are at the critical stage of their campaign to qualify for the ICC Inter-Continental Cup. And with the final stages of the event clashing with the one-dayers against England, I couldn’t have left them midway.’’

But ‘‘I have not quit the India Under-19 job as this is just a temporary arrangement,’’ Singh explains.

But what he left unsaid was the way BCCI handled age-group cricket was not After a bit of prodding, Singh gives away: ‘‘For someone like me it is very important to know what is happening. I have other things to do as well.’’ (CN)

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