Samiullah selected for North Zone team

Will Play In Deodhar Trophy

ABID KHAN
Srinagar, Mar 10: JK Ranji team, pace spearhead, Samiullah Beigh has been selected for north Zone team, which will participate in Deodhar trophy at Cuttack from Friday. The team was announced on Monday. It will be led by Mithun Manhas of DDCA and has three Punjab players Uday Kaul, Siddharth Kaul and Ravi Inder Singh. The other members of the team are Akash Chopra, Virat Kohli, Rajat Bhatia, Pradeep Sangwan, Yogesh Nagar, Chetnya Nanda (all DDCA), Yash Pal (Services), V S Malik, V Indulkar (HPCA), Rahul Dewan (Haryana) and Samiullah Beigh (JKCA). Five zonal teams of country and one foreign team will participate in the event. They have been divided into two groups. Group A consists of Central Zone, North Zone and East Zone while Group B consists West Zone, South Zone and Zimbabwe XI. The tournament would be played on league cum knock-out-basis. North Zone will play first match against Central Zone on March 13. Expressing happiness over his selection, Samiullah told Greater Kashmir, “It is an honour to be selected for the zonal team second time in the same season. I performed well in ranji one-dayers by taking 10 wickets in five matches.” Samiullah has become third cricketer from JK to get his place in the north Zone team for Deodar Trophy. Before him, Abdul Qayoom Bagaw and Abid Nabi had represented state in the trophy. “I was expecting selection call last year, but it didn’t happen. I didn’t loose heart and gave my best this time. Selectors were satisfied and included me in the team” he said. Though it is first time that Samiullah has been selected in north Zone one-day team, he was selected twice for zonal test team. But on both occasions he was not given chance to play. “When I got a call this time, I told selectors what is the fun to be in the team without being in playing eleven. On that, they assured me that this time there are atleast two matches to be played and I would be given chance. They said that rest depends on my performance,” he revealed. In 2007 season, he took 24 wickets in five test matches and last season bagged 25 wickets in same number of matches. On both the occasions, he was selected for zonal team but was not included in the playing eleven. “If this time chance would be given to me, I’ll give my best as I know it is the chance to stake claim in Team India. If I perform well here, selection to Team India is not too far” he asserted. Samiullah will join team at Delhi on Wednesday where from he will leave for Cuttack in the evening. In first match of the tournament, north Zone will lock horns with central Zone on March 13 while in second match on same day, west Zone will be against south Zone. North Zone will be against east Zone in third match on March 14 while fourth match is scheduled between south Zone and Zimbabwe Presidents-XI on March 15. In fifth match, central Zone will be against east Zone March 16 while in sixth match, west Zone will be against Zimbabwe on March 16. The final between top two teams from Group A and Group B will be played on March 18 at Barabati Stadium.

Published in Greater Kashmir on Mar 11 link http://greaterkashmir.net/full_story.asp?Date=11_3_2009&ItemID=5&cat=4