Arjun Tendulkar slammed on Twitter for nepotism in U16 selection; claims turn out to be false

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput killing himself earlier this month sparked the nepotism debate in India yet again. Many on social media claimed that the real talent like him got sidelined due to the nepotism in Bollywood. But ever since then, Arjun Tendulkar, Sachin Tendulkar‘s son, has faced a flak on Twitter as well. The reason is his selection over Pranav Dhanawade in U16 West Zone team back in 2016.

The debate had sparked four years ago as well when Pranav was ignored despite scoring 1009 runs in just 327 balls for Arjun who was yet to make any substantial contribution. An old picture is doing rounds over the last few days on social media claiming that nepotism exists in cricket as well and Arjun only got selected as he was Sachin’s son while the real talent like Pranav was excluded.

Does Nepotism Exist only in bollywood? It is in Cricket too. Where is Pranav Dhanawade now ?#Nepotism #NepotismInCricket#SushantSinghRajput pic.twitter.com/V3JKCHEPtp

— Aniket Birwatkar (@AniketBirwatka) June 17, 2020

Clarification about the matter

However, when the facts were checked about the claim, they were found to be misleading completely. According to The Logical Indian, a player is eligible to be picked for West Zone side only if he has played for Mumbai. Pranav played the record-breaking innings after the Mumbai side was picked. Rather the team had played a few matches already by then.

Moreover, Pranav Dhanawade’s father Prashant had also cleared four years ago itself that his son wasn’t eligible for selection as Mumbai U16 side was picked before he scored 1009 runs. He also went on to say that Arjun Tendulkar and Pranav Dhanawade are very good friends and speak regularly with each other.

These facts clearly state that Arjun wasn’t selected in the West Zone U16 side due to nepotism and no injustice was done with Pranav. Rather the latter and his family are well aware of the rules laid down and he was then moved under U19 category.

Reports had also emerged in 2017 that Pranav had lost his focus and wasn’t playing the game. However, he worked on it and came back strongly to scored 236 runs on the second anniversary of his historic knock in an inter-college game.