Rajasthan Cricket Association seeks report on poor show in Vijay Hazare Trophy

The Rajasthan Cricket Association’s (RCA) ad hoc committee, which is managing the beleaguered cricketing body’s day-to-day works, has not taken the pathetic performance of Team Rajasthan in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy kindly. Rajasthan has played five of its allotted 9 matches so far and has lost every single one of them. On Saturday, convener of the panel, Vinod Saharan, shot off an email to coaches Amit Asawa, Anshu Jain and manager Vijendra Kumar Yadav asking them to submit a detailed report on the poor show of Rajasthan team in the prestigious championship. “In the report, please specifically mention the reasons for the miserable performance of the team as a whole,” the email read.

NO PROCESS TO GROOM TEAM

In five games played by Rajasthan in Vijay Hazare Trophy they have failed to register even a single win. With players taking on the challenge of a turning pitch in Chennai, they automatically become the target of criticism and are the first ones in the firing line. However, every other team started its preparation in June, while Rajasthan became active merely three weeks before the start of a grueling domestic season.

To make matters worse, the practice games were held on pitches that were either flat or had seam movement. Sources said the coaches cannot be spared of criticism as they could have gone ahead demanding a suitable practice track as everyone knew about the venue that was allocated to the team. Add to it the failure of the coaches to improve the performance of the players, particularly the batsmen. “Given Amit Asawa is the coach since last 5 years, he knows the situation well and can work out things to ensure the players are not short on preparation,” an RCA official said.

RCA CAUGHT IN CROSS HAIRS

Factionalism has destroyed Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) that is lying in tatters for almost six years now. Without any stability in the premier cricketing body, the organization has failed to lead the team when it matters the most.

In a precarious situation like this, it is the selectors and the coaches who have to up their game and see that the will to win can be stretched to the last mile. In a scenario like this, new skipper Ashok Menaria cannot be the fall guy. Like in Australia, the selectors or coaches should stand down and pave way for fresh blood.

PLAYERS FACE THE BRUNT

After Australia was marauded 3-0 in Sri Lanka and then surrendered a test series at home against South Africa, the then chairman of selectors, Rod Marsh, stepped down paving the way for “some fresh thinking”. In contrast, even humiliating performance year after year has not left a scar on the long-serving panel of Team Rajasthan selectors or the coaches. A highly placed source said, “It is a sort of nexus where the trials are a sham as selectors in order to oblige different people in power at RCA pick and choose the players without assessing their talent.”

On the other hand, taking the entire responsibility, team captain Ashok Menaria said, “As a senior batsman and captain I need to ensure that I score and need to take the responsibility of the same. As other players, apart from Robin Bist, are not mature enough, I need to do well so that others can score more easily. I am working hard and hope things will fall in place.” In the last domestic season the selectors dropped Vineet Saxena, a seasoned top-order batsman, on the grounds that he was not young enough to represent the state and this year they hinted the same to medium-pacer Pankaj Singh (who then opted to play for Puducherry).