Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Will Samiullah make it to Team India, IPL?



‘JKCA SHOULD PLEAD FOR HIS SELECTION’

ABID KHAN

Srinagar, Jan 12: With another brilliant performance with both bat and ball in the Ranji Trophy tournament this year, the JK paceman, Samiullah Beigh, has emerged as a strong contender to win a place for himself in the Team India and Indian Premier League. Many wonder if the Jammu Kashmir Cricket Association would plead his case before the Board of Cricket and Control in India for his entry into the national squad. Samiullah performed with both ball and bat for his team in the Ranji trophy this season. He performed even better than the professional players whom JKCA had hired to save JK Cricket from embarrassment in the tournament. In the five matches he played this season, Samiullah took 25 wickets with a two-time 6-wicket haul at an amazing economy rate of 2.7 runs. In the batting discipline, he scored 274 runs with average of 27.4 runs in five matches with notable notches of 61, 48, 44, 42, 40 and 33. In the only win the JK team registered was against Haryana, Samiullah was the key. He took 9 wickets and scored 52 runs in the match. In the current season, he bettered his previous performance and won a place in the North Zone team last year. He had taken 24 wickets in five matches with two five-wicket hauls last year and scored 137 runs. The win against Goa was largely due to Sami’s brilliant performance. Goa needed 147 runs to win but they were bundled out for 141 runs with Sami taking six wickets in the inning. He took 49 wickets with an average of 4.9 wickets per match in 10 Ranji test matches. Despite that he was not picked for the zonal team not to talk of the Team India squad. It was only after the JKCA intervened upon the pressure of cricket fraternity that he was selected for the team. He was not given a chance to play though. Samiullah was not picked by the IPL instead another JK player, Mudasir was picked up by Kings-XI Punjab. With the IPL placements and zone selection round the corner, it remains to be seen whether Samiullah will be selected. The cricketing fraternity of the valley is blaming JKCA for their ‘lenient’ approach in pushing his case before the BCCI: “The JKCA are not the true representatives of the cricketers upon which the entire Association has been thriving,” said a cricketer. “You don’t expect the players like Abdul Qayoom Baqaw, Abid Nabi or Sami out of the national squad.” It was because of the dejection and the lack of support that Abid Nabi played in Indian Cricket League, he said. Abid was subsequently banned by the Association from playing in domestic cricket,” he said. Renowned paceman of the valley, Abdul Qayoom Bagaw who knocked at the doors of Indian selectors several times, said that Sami was the strong contender for his inclusion in the North Zone team and IPL. “During the peak days of my career, I helped JK in qualifying for the knockout zone single-handedly,” he said. “I was ignored by the selection committees. I was advised to change the team and I think I made a mistake.” Australian bowling great, Deniss Lilee, after seeing him in the MRF pace academy had remarked that if Samiullah would not be picked by the Indian team, he would be really unlucky. His colleagues in the Academy, Ishant Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, VRV Singh, Munaf Patel, Pankaj Singh have since long been a part of the Indian team. “I have done my job by giving whatever best I could,” Samiullah said. “I’ll be meeting JKCA president, Dr Farooq Abdullah, to seek his assistance.”

oublished in greater kashmir on January-13-2009 link : http://greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=13_1_2009&ItemID=4&cat=4 )

No comments: