UPCA to hold bowling camp
LUCKNOW :Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) is in search of quality pacers and spinners for the upcoming domestic season as it has decided to conduct a specialised eight-day camp for bowlers, starting Friday, at the Kamla Club Ground in Kanpur.
Over 35 bowlers, including spinners of all three categories –under-19, under-23 and Ranji Trophy – will sharpen their skills under the tutelage of former Test offie Gopal Sharma, Obaid Kamal and Mukesh Pandey. “We always face crisis of fast bowlers in domestic matches as injuries to regular ones is a natural problem. We have decided to create a supply bank of bowlers in the state cricket and the selected ones would be kept here at the UPCA’s Academy for longer duration for training,” UPCA’s secretary Yudhveer Singh said on Thursday.
It is learnt that during the last few years, bowlers like Piyush Chawla, Sudeep Tyagi and Rudra Pratap Singh migrated to other states to play in domestic cricket. The problem is coupled with the non-participation of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav in domestic matches as they remain busy with Team India duty. Veteran seamer Praveen Kumar has almost “opted out” whereas Ankit Rajpoot also often remains a part of India A team.
“I want more participation of fast bowlers in such camps as a supply bank of 4-5 bowlers in every team will be the best idea for teams’ success in domestic matches in the upcoming season,” said Singh, adding, “We need to have more spinners like Kuldeep as Indian wickets are suited to them in domestic cricket.” He, however, accepted that bowlers in junior cricket are quite talented and have the ability to make it to senior teams. “Yash Dayal of Allahabad took 10 wickets in a match early this week at Bengaluru. It’s good that our youngsters are getting fourday matches nowadays,” he added.
While confirming the UPCA’s working committee meeting at Muzaffarnagar on August 14, Singh said the agenda had not been decided yet.
He also played down the Akram Saifi issue which recently rocked UP cricket as well as Indian cricket after he was accused in a TV sting of using alleged ‘dirty tricks’ in section system.
“He (Akram) was never on the rolls of the UPCA and I don’t look forward to any discussion about him in the Muzaffarnagar meeting. It will be a routine meeting,” he said. He also confirmed that UPCA has already begun its inquiry into allegations of Saifi ‘managing’ selection in the state.
Meanwhile, insiders in UPCA confirmed that besides Akram’s issue, a serious look into the “existence” of some people in the cricket body.
“Junior selection committee chief Arvind Kapoor is likely to be removed as he has already completed nine years in the body. He has also become one of the directors in the Jhansi Cricket Association so technically he can’t hold the post in UPCA as per the BCCI’s policy of office of profit,” said an official on condition of anonymity.
“Changes in the senior panel will also be discussed as one of the selectors has reportedly decided to give preference to his government job rather than spending time in the selection process,” he claimed.