From father to son, “unanimous” decision K Srikkanth to A Srikkanth

[My Voice India]

Posted on July 26, 2011 by admin
A section of the BCCI selection committee was unaware, while picking
the squad, of the major changes in the format of the Emerging Players
tournament in Australia in August. That may have led to a few
contentious choices in the 15-man squad, the most controversial being
Anirudha Srikkanth, the son of selection committee chairman
Krishnamachari Srikkanth. (Also read: Nepotism? More like lack of
professionalism)

For the first time in its six years, the Emerging Players Tournament
has moved from being an event featuring Twenty20 and 50-over games to
exclusively three-day matches. This information was not available to
some selectors during their meeting when they believed they were
choosing the second rung of India’s limited-overs talent, and in so
doing added in a couple of misfits.

Eyebrows were raised over Anirudha’s selection but those selectors
ESPNcricinfo spoke to stressed there was no pressure to include him,
and one of them denied that Srikkanth senior had proposed the son’s
name. The selector said that during a previous meeting, when
Anirudha’s name had come up for discussion, Srikkanth had volunteered
to leave the room. The current selection meeting however was conducted
over the telephone as two of the selectors were in the West Indies
when the team had to be picked.

“Anirudha’s name has been up for discussion for a while now, not so
much as a three-day specialist but as someone who is good in limited
overs, Twenty20 and 50-overs. The records of both Saurabh Tiwary
[another surprise choice] and Anirudha are similar – we need to see if
they have the X-factor in Twenty20. They can both hit a long ball and
we believed they needed an opportunity to see how they do at the
Emerging Players level.”

The selector said of Anirudha, “We know that he is not consistent
enough in four-day cricket, but he is an impact player in Twenty20
cricket. The format in itself is inconsistent and we believe that he
has the capacity to get you a win every five or six matches. He’s done
well at the Champions League, which is one level higher from the IPL,
he won a match for Chennai.”

When asked whether he was aware that the tournament format had changed
from limited-overs to three-day cricket, the selector said, “That’s
news” yet believed that the squad was “covered”.

The Emerging Players tournament began in 2005 as a Twenty20 event, but
for the last four years has consisted of Twenty20 and 50-over matches.
The change of format was approved by all participating nations and
formally announced on May 28, 2011. On the ICC’s official website,
Cricket Australia general manager Michael Brown is quoted as saying
that the format change would give players, “a good competitive taste
of all formats with this longer series complementing the Twenty20
tournament that will be hosted by the Malaysian Cricket Association
just beforehand.”

The Malaysian T20 tournament was to be held in early July but was
cancelled on June 12. The Emerging Players tournament will be played
in Townsville for the first time with Brown saying, “We feel it’s
important to provide a variety of conditions for the development of
the players and the new facilities at Endeavour Park with multiple
grounds will provide teams with first-class services.”
____________________________________________

It is often said in Indian cricket that even if your performance is
not up to the mark, you can still make your way into the team if you
have the right contacts. Another dubious example of selection seems to
have been added to the long list with Anirudha Srikkanth, son of
chairman of

selectors K Srikkanth, being named in the 15-member India ‘A’ team for
the Emerging Players Tournament that starts in Australia on August
1.Compared to the other names in the team, the 25-year-old Anirudha
had an ordinary domestic season.

It seems to be the first blatant goof-up from the first paid panel of
selectors. Srikkanth remained unavailable for comment, but a selector
claimed that it was the father who had proposed Anirudha’s name.

“Once the chief selector proposed Anirudha’s name, there was no way
any of us could have countered it. It had to be a unanimous
selection,” a selector said, preferring anonymity.

Even though the hard-hitting batsman was good in patches during the
domestic one-dayers, domestic Twenty20 and the Indian Premier League,
he was inconsistent during the Ranji Trophy. In fact, Anirudha could
not find a place in Tamil Nadu’s eleven for three of their nine Ranji
games last season.

Still, he was chosen for the tournament that features three-day
matches against the fringe players from Australia, New Zealand and
South Africa.

But players being pushed into ‘A’ sides is not new in Indian cricket.
In the last four years, this is the third such instance.

In 2007, Arjun Yadav, the son of former India off-spinner, national
selector N Shivlal Yadav who was then secretary of the Hyderabad
Cricket Association, was picked from nowhere for the India ‘A’ tour of
Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Later, Jaydev Shah, the son of then BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, was
selected for a tri-series involving Australia ‘A’ and New Zealand ‘A’
in 2008.



From father to son
Arjun Yadav|
Anirudha Srikkanth
Chairman of selectors K Srikkanth’s claim is that the inclusion of his
son Anirudha Srikkanth for the India ‘A’ team in the upcoming Emerging
Players Tournament in Australia was a “unanimous” decision. At least
one of his co-selectors, however, says they had no choice once their
chairman had proposed Anirudha’s name for the squad.

In the recent past, both Arjun Yadav and Jaydev Shah have been chosen
for India ‘A’ despite mediocre domestic records while their fathers,
Shivlal and Niranjan, have been office-bearers in the Board of Control
for Cricket in India.

There was never a hint of nepotism, though, when South African all-
rounder Shaun Pollock began his illustrious career in 1995 despite his
father Peter being one of the selectors. Shaun’s form was outstanding
at the time and Peter’s co-selectors made sure he was not embarrassed
when his son’s case came up.