THE LOST GENERATION

Snubbed and hurt
So it is quite understandable that the veteran of 15 seasons with Mumbai, Amol Muzumdar, who has scored almost 10,000 runs for his city, is quite disappointed that he doesn’t qualify as a Mumbai Indian. The Ranji skipper says: “It hurts to be sidelined when you have given your best to the city for so long playing domestic cricket. When it is time to get recognition and money, I am not part of it. But that’s the way it is,” says the Ranji skipper.
There are many who say that with a number of players from the city — some even without any first class experience — signed for IPL, Muzumdar’s reputation as a leader might suffer in the coming season. But the Mumbai skipper dismisses those talks. “I have always tried and developed an attitude in my team where seniors and juniors don’t matter. We all play to win. So I don’t think an awkward situation will arise. From my side I will still give my best and demand that from my team mates. I don’t how they will look at me,” he says.
If Muzumdar is hurt, Delhi speedster Amit Bhandari is shocked about not making it to his city franchise. “Seriously, I am not able to understand why I haven’t been asked to join. I am only 29, definitely not too old, and my economy rate and wickets speak for themselves. I have 311 wickets in just 94 matches. Tell me how many would have these statistics? I think that after all this, I surely deserve at least a year’s contract. Is that too much to demand? I haven’t yet reconciled to the fact that I will not be a part of the IPL,” he says. “What pains even more is that some players who are not even a regular part of their state sides have been signed up.”
But it seems there is no place for such sentiments in this market-driven league. The men responsible for recruiting domestic cricketers in IPL teams choose to remain tight-lipped on the issue. They confess privately that this is business for them and domestic cricketers don’t sell. “See, it is simple. Our first priority was to take the big names in Indian cricket, followed by international stars. After that we got the junior World Cup-winning boys. Beyond that it doesn’t matter,” says a franchise point-man with a Jerry McGuire tone.
But even within the BCCI there are a few voices that are concerned about the cold shoulder to the senior domestic cricketers. Anurag Thakur, the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association president and former junior selector, says he is shocked to see many deserving players being ignored. “I think the IPL needs to be more considerate towards the interests of the Indian players. I think the focus on juniors is great but at the same time, we can’t ignore what the seniors have done,” he says.

Odd-team-out
Interestingly, there is one team in the IPL that has a few old-timers. Bangalore Royal Challengers, on the advice of former Indian captain Rahul Dravid, have drafted in a few 30-plus domestic cricketers. Karnataka regulars Sunil Joshi, J Arun Kumar, R Vinay Kumar and Thilak Naidu are the rare domestic seniors in the IPL. But there are a few in the cricketing fraternity who feel this is a step backward.
UP coach Gyanendra Pandey, who for years had been on the fringes of international cricket himself, jokes about how he desperately wants to be 21 again and be a part of this cricket boom. But he comes across as someone who is not a big supporter of the presence of the ‘domestic giants’ in the IPL. “In order to get ourselves a professional set up, we can’t grudge the juniors getting money. Say someone like Sunil Joshi, he doesn’t have many years left in him. So there is no point in sticking to players like him,” he says.
So the jury is still out on this perennially touchy senior-junior issue. At the end of the first season one will come to know if domestic old hands are a better buy than teenagers with a junior World Cup champions tag. In case the Royal Challengers do well and the likes of Joshi have a big role to play, mind-sets may change. That might mean doors will open for the likes of Muzumdar, Kulkarni and the others in the coming IPL seasons.

Howzzat!
Home umpires appeal against preferential treatment to foreigners

G.S. Vivek

LIKE the ageing domestic stars, local umpires are upset at being ignored too. According to sources, the BCCI has roped in 11 foreign umpires for the IPL, out of which just two happen to be from the ICC Elite panel. The rest are from the one-day panel. And the allegations of preferential treatment to foreigners gain strength when one finds out that none of the Indian umpires from the one-day panel have made the IPL cut.

Interestingly, the IPL has given contracts to three — AV Jayaprakash, I Sivaram and K Hariharan — all of whom were removed from the Elite panel after adverse remarks from the ICC.

“The IPL could have been a good chance for our umpires to be given exposure to international cricket, and then check where they stand before recommending our names to the ICC and fast-tracking them to the BCCI one-day panel. But unfortunately they have looked at outsiders. And for the board to tell us that outsiders even on the one-day panel are better than us is demoralising,” says an umpire, who is now hoping to find his name in the list of 30 to be prepared by former elite panel umpire Srinivas Venkatraghavan for off-field duties and substitutes. “They will pick umpires and post them as TV and reserve umpires. So what’s the use?” he asks.

BCCI joint secretary MP Pandove, who is a member of the BCCI’s umpiring panel, defends the selection of foreign umpires. “We have promised the ICC that we will stage a world-class tournament. So we’ll do whatever we need to to reach that standard. Our umpires will also be on duty gradually. They can take over in subsequent years,” he says.