After winning the Asia Cup in the UAE, the Indian team beat England in the U-19 Cricket World Cup final in the Caribbean(File) Eight players of the India U-19 World Cup winning team will have to wait for some more time to get their name in the Indian Premier League auction pool as they don’t meet the criteria set by the Indian cricket board. Only those U-19 players who have played at least one first-class match or List A game can enrol in the auction. If they don’t have domestic cricket experience, the rules state that they should have turned 19 before the auction takes place to be eligible.
The rule will affect players like wicketkeeper Dinesh Bana, India’s under-19 vice-captain, batsman Shaik Rasheed, left-arm pacer Ravi Kumar, all-rounders Nishant Sindhu and Siddarth Yadav, opener Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manav Parakh and Garv Sangwan. Players like Rasheed, Bana, Kumar and Sindhu made a big impact in India’s victorious campaign in the Caribbean.
The BCCI is yet to take a final call on the matter, but many within the board feel an exception can be made especially when hardly any domestic cricket has been played in the last two years during the pandemic.
Ranji Trophy, the premier domestic first-class tournament, kicks off on February 17 which means even if the respective state associations include them in their Ranji teams, they won’t be eligible for the IPL auction scheduled for February 12 and 13.
The IPL 2022 Player Auction pool has a total of 590 cricketers, set to go under the hammer during the two-day event in Bengaluru. Amongst the players registered for the auction are 228 capped players, 355 uncapped ones and seven from Associate Nations.
“It’s unfortunate that these boys weren’t able to play List A tournaments as U-19 and List A games were played simultaneously. One season, there was no cricket at all due to the pandemic. I feel the BCCI should consider this as a special case and the players should not lose out because of this (stipulation). The team has done really well and they should not be deprived of the opportunity,” veteran BCCI administrator Ratnakar Shetty said.
The BCCI conducted its U-19 tournament, Challengers Series and Asia Cup simultaneously with men’s domestic cricket. Even if a few associations wanted to add their junior players to the senior team, they couldn’t as they all were on national duty for the past few months before departing for the under-19 World Cup in the West Indies.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah had congratulated the team and stressed that there are pathways in place for their development.
“India is the most successful side in the history of U-19 World Cups and the fifth title is testament to the robust system and structure we have in place for our age-group cricketers. The Board takes age-group cricket very seriously and works closely to ensure we remain fluid with our approach to suit the demands of the team amidst the pandemic.”
However, whether to allow all the players from the victorious squad into the upcoming IPL auction is now a decision for the board.
Pack of 8 at U-19 World Cup
Angkrish Raghuvanshi (batsman)
Matches 6, Runs 278, Average 46.33, Strike Rate 89.39, Highest Score 144
Shaik Rasheed (batsman)
Matches 4, Runs 201, Average 50.25, Strike Rate 65.90, Highest Score 94
Nishant Sindhu (all-rounder)
Matches 5, Runs 140, Average 46.66, Strike Rate 93.33, Highest Score 50*, Wickets 6, Economy 3.09
Dinesh Bana (wicketkeeper-batsman)
Matches 6, Runs 63, Average 31.50, Strike Rate 190.90, Highest Score 22, Catches 9, Stumpings 2
Ravi Kumar (seamer)
Matches 6, Wickets 10, Economy 3.66
Garv Sangwan (seamer)
Matches 1, Wickets 2, Economy 4.60
Siddarth Yadav (all-rounder)
Matches 1, Runs 6, Average 6.00, Strike Rate 66.66
*Off-pinner Manav Parakh didn’t play in any game of the tournament proper
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
