Mumbai T20 League: MCA to conduct an investigation regarding the dubious identity of an all-rounder

The inaugural edition of the Mumbai T20 League is going on in full spirits with some fantastic opportunities for the local young guns of the State to show their talent and abilities at this stage of the game. However, the Twenty20 tournament has been struck with a huge hindrance regarding some claims of false identity against North Mumbai Panthers’ team all-rounder Akhtar Shaikh. The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) is all set to invite a proper investigation on this whole matter against the alleged Mumbai cricketer.

Akhtar was part of a banned league

Akhtar has represented the Panther in two matches in the ongoing Mumbai T20 League, in which he has scored 18 runs with the bat and also picked up a wicket so far in a couple of games. In the recent reports, it was revealed that Akhtar was previously part of the banned Rajwada Cricket League, which was a T20 tournament held in Rajasthan last year. He took part in the Twenty20 event in Rajasthan with an alleged false identity which goes by the name, Wasim Khan and represented the Bikaner Desert Challengers. But the Rajwada Cricket League was banned by the BCCI after its Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) issued an official warning against the league.

All the players who played the Twenty20 tournament were also served with a warning relating to their participation by the ACU.  MCA’s joint secretary Dr. Unmesh Khanvilkar stated that the committee will look into this matter and figure out the real truth behind this controversy relating to Akhtar’s false identity claims. The Panthers’ player is also clearly registered with Kamath Memorial Cricket Club and National Cricket Club to play local matches, as mentioned in the MCA records. While, when asked about the claims, Akhtar stated that these accusations against him are not true.

“We will look into the matter,” said the MCA joint secretary as quoted by the Mid-day. “It is not true,” answered Akhtar on the dubious identity claims raised against him.

We were also not aware

The North Mumbai Panthers’ team manager Datta Mitbhavkar revealed that the team management was also not aware of any of the past details relating to Akhtar. They had selected all their players from the pool of players available for the auction.

“We have chosen players from the pool available for the auction. Only those players registered with the MCA were in the auction. We wanted an all-rounder and that is why we picked him. We are not aware of what he has done in his past,” said Datta.