Duleep Trophy (ANI Photo)
That said, the primary purpose of the inter-zonal tournament is to check out the best performers in the Ranji Trophy go head-to-head against each other. The reason given was that there will be fans who will come to watch the match, which doesn’t happen in the CoE. The relevance of the tournament, especially after the inception of IPL, has diminished drastically. Yet, it remains a stepping stone for a lot of players. The tournament’s sanctity has been up for debate with the selection process. The BCCI, in the last decade, has often tried playing the tournament with national selectors picking the India ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams.
After BCCI dissolves national selectors’ role in picking zonal teams, sanctity of the tournament comes under scanner CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: A few days before the Duleep Trophy got underway at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru on Sunday, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia announced that the final will be shifted to MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Delhi opener Sanat Sangwan, who scored 828 runs in seven Ranji Trophy matches, was on Sunday, benched by the North Zone management and instead middle-order batter Yash Dhull was played as an opener. “When we were selectors from 2016-2021, BCCI had given us the responsibility of picking the Duleep Trophy to maintain continuity in a player’s development. The Bengal opener has an average of 47.85 over 112 games while Sooryavanshi averages 17.25 in the eight games that he has played.
There’s no accountability if BCCI selectors are not used,” Gandhi told TOI. This year, the board has reverted to the inter-zonal format and has kept the national selectors out of the equation. The result? The Central Zone team has only one player from semifinalist Uttarakhand while Madhya Pradesh was the only team from the zone to have qualified for the quarterfinals. There have been a few debatable selections in the South Zone team as well. Former national selector Devang Gandhi believes that a national selector has to be involved in the selection process if the sanctity of the tournament is to be saved. If the opener with the highest runs in the country doesn’t get to play Duleep Trophy, it defeats the purpose of the tournament. The board must at least ensure one selector from each zone is present in planning their respective zonal teams. Otherwise, politics at the state association level can crop up. For selectors, Duleep is a tournament from where players for India ‘A’ are selected. In this case, Australia ‘A’ will come to India in October and those who are part of this Duleep, will look to stake a claim in the ‘A’ side. It is definitely a step lower for the established stars and there’s not much to prove for them, unless it’s just a test of fitness, as is the case for Washington Sundar or Sai Sudharsan, who are coming back from injuries. When we look at the East Zone squad that took on NorthEast from Sunday, we see Vaibhav Sooryavanshi being named as the vice-captain ahead of Abhimanyu Easwaran.