Praveen Amre fired for not playing a regional bowler

It has been reported in ToI that Praveen Amre was sacked in the middle of India A tour to England in May and June this year and was replaced by B Arun. This move was initiated by the man in fire : N Srinivasan, the powerful BCCI sec who is also the owner of Chennai Super Kings franchise and perhaps head of TNCA.  He is also at loggerheads with Lalit Modi and is seen as the man behind downfall of Modi from the top position he occupied in the board ranks.

That apart, the reason why Praveen Amre was sacked?  Very much the same which I have thought is behind the sudden influx of Tamil Nadu players in the Indian team as replacements for everything – keepers, batsmen, spinners, bowlers, fielders and waterboys.

Its been said that bunch of Southie players complained to Srini that coach is not playing Ganapathy in the final XI and instead giving chance to Mumbai bowler Dhawal Kulkarni. Dhawal was selected for Indian tour to New Zealand and perhaps he did not play (I don’t remember he did).  Praveen Amre hails from Mumbai too and is one of the famed disciples of Ramakant Achrekar (Sachin being the other).  Pravin Amre had a decent career which began superbly with a debut hundred vs SA in SA. He has had successful coaching stints too with different teams at domestic level.

So if the reports of Amre being sacked on not playing Ganapathy are true, then they reflect to a very serious and a wrong trend in Indian cricket – regional bias and quota system. I have constantly believed that the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay,  R Ashvin, Dabrinath have been in and out of the teams with an alarmed frequency. A look at their performances does not paint a rosy picture though, but they still keep coming in.

Dinesh Karthik is out one series for non performance, he is back next one without doing any substantial. Right now he is playing in SL riding on 66 he made in Asia cup final.  On 10^th, he misfielded, failed with the bat and blah. He would still open with Sehwag on 16^th replacing Virat Kohli. Tough for Delhi lad cos he has had an awesome ODI year in 2010. He has been consistent in batting and is a wonderful fielder. He floats around, makes runs whenever he is in the team. Way better than Dinesh Karthik, who is forever young. He has been around now for 6 years and is just 24. Unbelievable. Where is Ajay Ratra?  Deep Dasgupta? Parthiv Patel? This lads have been redundant now in Indian cricket as the keeper right now is the captain of team in all 3 formats and does not seem to be failing in near future. 

Saurabh Tiwary is travelling since 2 series now and has not played a single game despite hailing from Dhoni’s own state. What does that mean? Is there a diktat to the tour selection committee to play one or 2 Tamil Nadu players every game? Murali was automatic replacement for Gambhir in Tests, Karthik is replacement for Gambhir in ODIs.  Awesome man!!

Cheekanth is into a deep running mission to Tamil Naduise Indian cricket and that would end in a disaster. No offence for anybody from TN, but are the players selected from TN right now worthy of playing? If there are 3 glittering TN players who are playing awesome domestic and A cricket, get them in the team. But don’t get in the failing stars who are just in cos they have Cheekas and Srini backing them up owing to the clout they enjoy in BCCI.