Delhi shuts door on 145;outsider146; selectors

It8217;s clearly a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Halfway through the domestic season, the DDCA sports commit...

It8217;s clearly a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Halfway through the domestic season, the DDCA sports committee has decided that only those who8217;ve played for Delhi can be made selector of any Delhi team, including the Ranji side.

The 8216;major decision8217;, taken unanimously by the working sports committee on Monday, had it that 8216;8216;no player who has not played for Delhi shall be made selector.8217;8217; The timing is perfect: not only are half the matches over, all team selections have long been made, the last one being that of U-22 squad a fortnight ago.

The rationale, as offered by DDCA sports secretary Sunil Dev, is even more intriguing: 8216;8216;Their outsiders8217; heart and soul is not with the Delhi team.8217;8217;

Didn8217;t the sports committee think of it when they picked the selectors at the beginning of the season? 8216;8216;They probably thought about it now. Anyway, this decision will come into force from the next season8217;8217;, Dev added.

One committee member said some objections had been raised, at the beginning of the season, to the appointment of 8216;outsiders8217; but it was rejected because the sports committee thought people with the knowledge of the game should be picked as selectors, irrespective of which state they might have represented earlier.

What happened next is clear: elections to the DDCA are due anytime now, so bold announcements have to be made with an eye on votes.

Who are the 8216;outsiders8217;? This season8217;s Ranji Trophy selection committee has three on its panel:

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8226; Selection committee chairman Yashpal Sharma never played first-class cricket for Delhi, he8217;d represented Punjab, Haryana and Railways

8226; N P Singh, now with Indian Airlines, was member of the Railways Ranji squad

8226; Sunil Khanna played a few Ranji games for Punjab.

8226; On the U-22 selection panel, Raju Tandon, an NIS coach at IG Stadium, is an 8216;outsider.8217;

8226; Two of the three U-19 selectors 8212; Pradeep Kashyap and Mahesh Bhati 8212; never played for Delhi.

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8226; U-17 has Pradeep Gupta and Devender Bisht as the two not to have played for the state while Pawan Sharma and Bhola Shankar from the under-15 selectors panel never played for Delhi.