NCA trainees: Intriguing choices

A second list of 20 trainees for the National Cricket Academy was announced yesterday. This is in addition to the 24 member first list that was released last week. The training camps will begin on May 1 and May 15 respectively for the two sets of trainees. It is not clear however on what grounds the two lists have been demarcated and whether there is any difference in the nature of the training provided to both sets of prospects. The average age of the second list is less than that of the first but there are players from the same age group straddling both lists.

Yesterday's list contains some more members of the triumphant Under-19 World Cup squad like Punjab openers Ravneet Ricky and Manish Sharma, Bihar new ball bowler Mrityunjay Tripathy and Tamil Nadu left arm spinner Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan. Mumbai middle order bat Sushant Manjrekar, Saurashtra's left arm spinner Rakesh Dhruv and wicketkeeper Pallav Vora of Gujarat were also named in the World Cup probables but did not make the final cut. Middle order bat Nikhil Doru of Rajasthan and Bengal off spinner Saurashish Lahiri have played regularly in the Ranji Trophy this season while Alind Naidu scored a hundred for Vidarbha in his only match.

Off spinning all rounder Uday Karavadra had a fine run with both ball and bat for Saurashtra in the Cooch Behar Trophy earlier this season and batsman Sangram Bagul also played a steady hand for Mumbai in the same competition. The others selected, Mumbai's Vinayak Mane, Santosh Chaphe, Vinit Indulkar, Nikhil Kulkarni and Swapnil Hazare, Delhi's Chetan Sharma and Nitin Agarwal and Haryana's Joginder Sharma are a rather mystifying quantity though.

The selection process seems to be rather whimsical with three Kerala seamers being reportedly chosen in the earlier list for having impressed Kapil Dev in the nets in Kochi. While it is all very well to pick out raw talent from the nursery, one should also spare a thought for those who have demonstrated their abilities in a more tangible form. Taking the age limit for the trainees to be 23 (although 24-year-old S Sriram has sneaked in), there are a number of other prospective candidates who have been given the go-by.

Virender Shewag, Amit Bhandari, Ashish Nehra, Amit Pagnis, Hemang Badani, Rajesh Pawar, Mithun Minhas, Gagandeep Singh, Mithun Beerala, Rowland Barrington, Dinesh Mongia, Wrichik Majumdar, Thilak Naidu et al. The relaxation of the age limit to accommodate those in their mid 20s could also be looked into although of course the facilities available can only support a certain number of players at a time and it makes eminent sense to focus on a limited number rather than spreading oneself too thin.