``Worse than politics'' - Kirti Azad quits Selection Panel (15 October 1998)

15 October 1998

"Worse than politics" - Kirti Azad quits Selection Panel

By Gulu Ezekiel

As reported in yesterday's CricInfo365, former Test cricketer Kirti Azad has quit his post as a selector for the Delhi and District Cricket Association.

In his resignation letter to DDCA sports secretary Sunil Dev, Azad has said that "it is difficult for me to fit into this august committee". Azad, a member of the winning 1983 World Cup team, said he was "disgusted with the pressures and adjustements in the selection of the team." He added: I find that I am alone in the battle against injustice. What can I do alone. This is much worse than a political scene." Azad is an MLA with the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party.

He lashed out at the way the selection trials were made with the announcement of 'open trials' after the selectors had named 32 probables. "Are we selectors incompetent? How does one expect us to pick the team from over 150 boys at the nets? Can anyone do justice to the job?"

He claimed that after the 32 were named the president of the DDCA added 18 more names to make it 50. "I reluctantly agreed to it to honour the post of the president. But the open trials were too much to digest. There were pressures from all quarters to include certain players."

The other selectors on the panel are Madan Lal, another former Test cricketer and member of the '83 team and former wicket-keeper-batsman Surinder Khanna who played one-day internationals for the country.

Source :: CricInfo365