Arjun’s selection leads to ‘nepotism’ debate

Chandigarh, June 9

Does Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun deserve to be in the Indian Under-19 squad? After his selection on Thursday, a debate over this has been raging among cricketers, fans and coaches.
The debate is especially intense in the cyberworld, but we’ll come back to it shortly. We asked a Punjab coach what he thought of the selection. “I don’t think this is a good selection,” he said, and added that he did not want to be named. Tendulkar was 43rd on the list of the wicket-takers in the inter-state Cooch Behar Under-19 tournament, played late last year, and the coach quoted above took his 43rd position into account when forming his opinion. He did add, however, that a lot of the wicket-takers above Arjun would have been spinners. “Spinners always take more wickets than pace bowlers in Indian tournaments,” he said.
Top wickets

The credentials of Under-19 players of the state teams are not well-known. However, an analysis of Tendulkar’s stats shows that most of his victims in five Cooch Behar matches were top-order batsmen. He opened the bowling in all the matches he played. He bowled 138 overs and gave away 454 runs, at 3.28 runs an over; he picked up 18 wickets at a passable average of 25.22.
In two of Mumbai’s wins, he had match figures of 5/67 and 4/53; in one game in which his team took the first innings lead, his figures were 6/137.
The most impressive number, however, is 14 — 14 of his 18 wickets belonged to top-order batsmen, for a high percentage of 77.77. Two of his victims batted at positions 6-8, and another two at 9-11.
Nepotism?

But how come a bowler ranked 43rd among the tournament wicket-takers was selected? A source in the selection committee told a reporter that Arjun was the “only genuine quick bowler” who had taken over 15 wickets, and that most others were spinners. “Only Ajay Dev Goud (33 wickets) being a genuine all-rounder,” said the source. Goud wasn’t picked, strangely.
Arjun’s selection has come in for a lot of criticism in the online world. A lot of people believe that his selection is a perfect example of nepotism. Most players, coaches and analysts don’t wish to antagonise Sachin Tendulkar, so most of the criticism has come from social media commoners. One veteran journalist, though, gave his frank opinion. “A medium pacer Ajay Dev Goud took 33 wickets not selected,” veteran cricket writer Makarand Waingankar wrote on Twitter. “Incidentally someone who is 43rd in the wicket takers list is picked because he is a genuine fast bowler! That’s Indian cricket for you… There are some who have taken more than 30 wickets. They too are not picked.”