Duleep Trophy kicks off amidst the unavailability of players

The Duleep Trophy continues to be surrounded by troubles even a few minutes prior to the first delivery of the 2017-18 season. The tournament suffered a miraculous fate this season as it was not included in BCCI’s domestic schedule only to be brought back again. Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly wrote a letter to the BCCI which led to the inclusion of the tournament by the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators. (CoA).

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The Indian cricket board had to fit in the tournament amidst the jam-packed international schedule by organizing it as early as possible. But putting it as early as September 7th will always remain a talking point, considering the team selection and all the other necessary arrangements.

Chief selector of the BCCI, MSK Prasad and his time had very little amount of time to come a with a 45-player pool and did they did a great job in doing so. But in the hurry, there were major faults that went un-noticed. According to the latest reports that came on Thursday, 7th September, many of the players have pulled out of the tournament for various reasons. It is believed that many of them are preferring cameos with county cricket over the Duleep Trophy. There were a group of players who were not physically fit enough to take part in the tournament.

Despite the short time the board got to select the 45 players, it was a major mistake by the board to select players who were unsure of their availability and players who are not physically up to the mark. However, MSK Prasad stayed away from naming the players who backed out to Cricbuzz.

KVP Rao, who according to Prasad, was to confirm such developments, remained unavailable for comment. BCCI has not put forward an official statement yet and there is still a lot of cloud over the players who would replace the backouts.