How Ishant script slipped through the cracks

It was then that chairman of selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar, who had seen Sharma bowl in Delhi recently, contacted a colleague in the selection committee and discussed the idea of asking the rookie to fly across 8212; not to play but get a feel of life with the big boys.

The next step was to bring the entire panel into the loop. However, the consensus finally was it would not be a great idea to have someone sent just for six days, considering that Sharma would miss a key Ranji fixture starting on January 2.

Meanwhile, the BCCI and subsequently the DDCA were asked to get the logistics in place 8212; visa, tickets, team colours 8212; for Sharma8217;s journey, if the need arose. And it8217;s here that the first link in the chain snapped, and the first buzz of a Sharma call-up started doing the rounds.

Obviously, by the time the selection panel had decided against Sharma, the cameras had rushed to the tall bowler playing his fifth first class match in Rajkot and his family in Delhi. And to compound the confusion, Sharma8217;s journey details reached the team management yesterday morning, raising a few eyebrows within.

Matters were finally sorted out yesterday when BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah contacted Vengsarkar here to clarify the situation and was informed that there never was any collective call for Sharma, and that the request for travel arrangements was just a stand-by measure.

Of course, there will now be many versions of this story, depending on which side of the prism it is seen from. But lost in the confusion was the small matter of a young mind that swung from ecstasy to agony in one night, hundreds of kilometres away from home.