Fracas at Delhi T20 selection meeting

NEW DELHI: There is hardly a selection meeting that goes without controversy at the DDCA. But on Sunday, the meeting to select the team for the knockouts of the Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 tournament didn’t just live up to its reputation, but went a bit farther. At the end of the meeting, the selection panel and its chairman were hauled up by the sports committee and a glass panel of the bar was broken.

It was learnt that the father of a player who wasn’t selected caused the damage in rage.

Even before the meeting began, one thing was sure, that Delhi will be a depleted side with all the top players – Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, among others --- opting out.

“They won’t play the knockouts as they have to attend camps of their IPL teams,” said a selector, who added that the panel has been unhappy with some players for picking and choosing the games. “Anyway, we have been pressing for youngsters.”

So, despite boasting of a number of internationals, Delhi will not have a single one for knockouts that begin on Tuesday. More so, experienced players like Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia too won’t be available, leaving Puneet Bisht with the captaincy.

Squad: Puneet Bisht (captain), Yogesh Nagar, Kshitiz Sharma, Sumit Narwal, Mohit Sharma, Varun Sood, Samarth Singh, Jagrit Anand, Pratyush Singh, Shelly Shourya, Vikas Mishra, Aditya Kaushik, Javed Khan, Vikas Tokas, Dhruv Shorey.

AT THE END OF THE MEETING, THE SELECTION PANEL AND ITS CHAIRMAN WERE HAULED UP AND A GLASS PANEL OF THE BAR WAS BROKEN