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SPORTS
Sports fraternity Mushtaq Ali Trophy National T20 Championship. He played
his only T20 International in 2015 against Zimbabwe. PTI
Batting maestro Tendulkar feels that team bonding is
eyes Ganguly for missing from the four-day tournament, which can be rein-
vented by bringing in four Ranji Trophy semifinalists along
with two teams of promising U-19 and U-23 players.
“I want him (Ganguly) to consider looking at the Du-
BCCI revamp leep Trophy...I feel Duleep Trophy is one tournament
where one is getting to hear that players are possibly
more focused on their own performances and what
the next tournament is and they play accordingly,”
Tendulkar told PTI in an exclusive interaction.
Harbhajan Singh expects “For instance if there’s an IPL auction, or an upcom-
former skipper to change the ing T20 tournament or one-day, players end up playing
current selection panel and in that mode and not for their team or looking at the
need of the hour,” he said.
bring strong people on board, The Duleep trophy was a five-team zonal tourna-
ment but now features India Blue, India Green and
reports tehelka bureau
India Red in a round-robin format. Ganguly took
ports fraternity is look- charge as the BCCI president on October 23 and
ing at the new BCCI within a week, he convinced the Bangladesh Cricket
President Sourav Board to play their first-ever Day/Night Test at Eden
Ganguly to revamp Gardens. As the former captain gears up for the BC-
S the functioning of CI’s first Annual General Meeting, Tendulkar wants
the board. While veteran Indian him to spare some focus on Duleep Trophy. “This is
off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is one change I would like to see because cricket has
expecting the former skipper to always been a team sport. It is all about team spirit
“change” the current selection bonding and playing together as a team. Not as in-
panel and bring “strong people” dividuals,” he said.
on board, Indian cricket icon Sachin Explaining his idea on how to revamp the Duleep
Tendulkar wants Ganguly to initiate a Trophy, Tendulkar said to get players to compete as
revamp of the Duleep Trophy. a team, it should be held right after the Ranji Trophy
Singh, 39, was reacting to wick- finals and among the four semifinalists, who play
etkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson the whole season together.
being dropped from the Indian “Top four Ranji teams and there should be two
Twenty20 squad without getting more teams because there would be a number of
a game in the recent home series against teams with talented individuals but which did not
Bangladesh. “I guess they r testing his heart qualify. You pick these players from various teams,
#selectionpanelneedtobechanged need strong also promote talented age-group players from Un-
people there.. hope dada @SGanguly99 will do der-19 and Under-23. “If there’s someone exception-
the needful,” he tweeted. ally talented U19 then you can look at those players.
Harbhajan quoted a tweet from Congress MP Bring them and have this tournament together.”
Shashi Tharoor, who represents Thiruvananthapu- “So you have got the best of both. You have got
ram in the Lok Sabha, to make his point. Tharoor four leading Ranji teams who have been playing to-
had expressed disappointment at the 25-year-old gether,” he added.
Kerala player not getting an opportunity. As BCCI technical committee chairman, Gan-
“Very disappointed to see @IamSanjuSamson guly had experimented with the pink ball in the
dropped without a chance. He carried the drinks Duleep Trophy for the first time in 2015/16. The
for three T20Is & has been promptly discarded. domestic tournament was held under lights for
Are they testing his batting or his heart?” he three seasons, giving the likes of Cheteshwar
asked. Pujara and Mayank Agarwal the much-need-
The current selection panel is headed by MSK ed experience which came in handy during
Prasad, who played six Tests and 17 ODIs for In- India’s first Day/Night Test against Bangla-
dia, and comprises Devang Gandhi, Jatin Pran- desh, which the home team won by innings
jpe, Sarandeep Singh and Gagan Khoda. and 46 runs.
Samson has scored 112 runs from four
games he played for Kerala in the ongoing Syed LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM
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