CAL misses Gyanendra’s name in its panel
LUCKNOW: In a surprise move, the Cricket Association Lucknow (CAL) has not considered former Indian cricketer Gyanendra Pandey in any of its committees. Gyanendra is one of the members of the junior national selection committee.
Former central zone player Ashok Bambi, former Indian Railway cricketer Yusuf Ali Khan, TK Bhattacharya and Javed Anwar have been inducted in the senior selection panel while Kamalkant Kanojiya, Asif Zafar, Shalabh Srivastava and Mukesh Agarwal have been included in the junior committee. Pandey, who has played two ODIs for India against Pakistan, is likely to be the chairman of the junior national selection committee soon as the post is vacant after the resignation of former Indian bowler Venkatesh Prasad.
Pandey was instrumental in picking up three cricketers from UP in the Indian squad which won the ICC Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand.
“We were in a bit hurry while finalising the committees last evening. We will soon have Pandey in selection panel as chairman after obtaining due permission from our president,” CAL secretary KM Khan said on Wednesday.
“He (Pandey) has a big role to play in Lucknow and we will certainly rope him in,” he added.
Induction of former junior India World Cup player Shalabh Srivastava is praiseworthy as the left-arm bowler was banned by the BCCI. The ban was lifted recently. “Shalabh’s experience would help us pick good players in the junior teams,” said Khan.
As per CAL resolution during the last general meeting in September, it has tried to induct all “rebels” in some committees so that cricketing activities which have stopped for the last one year may resume.
“There was no other way but to include some unusual faces too as they were disrupting cricket activities in the city. This was hampering the future of cricketers,” said a CAL insider on condition of anonymity.
One of the joint secretaries Gopal Singh would be the convener of league tournament of Division C, whereas the women’s cricket organising committee has Nikhat Khan, Priyanka Shaily, Anjul Dua and Mohd Arif with CAL chief Navneet Sehgal holding the post of chairman of the committee.
Meanwhile, Standard Cricket Club will take on Youth Cricket Club in the opening league match of the 14th BBD tournament, at the Dr Akhilesh Das stadium here on Thursday at 8.30 a.m.