Date:06/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/06/stories/2009010652900200.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

OU cricket team ‘denied’ chance to compete

V V Subrahmanyam

All India inter-university zonal cricket championship in Mumbai from January 10
Effectively, for no fault of theirs, the university cricketers made to suffer

HYDERABAD: Osmania University team cannot take part in the All India inter-university zonal cricket championship scheduled to be held in Mumbai from January 10 for the simple reason that the mandatory South Zone inter-varsity event could not be held in Kerala as scheduled by now.

With the original hosts shirking their responsibility for reasons best known to them, the Association of Indian Universities did not even bother to look out for an alternate venue. Consequently, the best of the young talent from Osmania University which was just hoping to compete in the South Zone event and come up with special performances to be eligible to play in the All India event are now left in the dark.

J. Prabhakar Rao, secretary of Board of Control for Inter-university tournaments (OU), informed The Hindu that unfortunately the AIU which organises the meet did not act in time either by enquiring whether any other university would be keen to host the South Zone event. “And worse, the All India zonal is about to commence in a couple of days, so there is no time enough for the OU to chip in as hosts,” he pointed out. “In fact, we have requested the hosts (Mumbai) to postpone the All India Zonals so that the South Zone championship can be held to give adequate chances for the South teams,” he explained.

Significantly, the AIU followed the rule book – letting the winner and runner-up (both Universities from Chennai) of the last edition to compete in the Mumbai championship. With Osmania finishing third in that South Zone event, it has no chance to send any of its players. By any means, this is not the way Inter-university cricket is expected to be organised. Considering that in the 70s it was this grade of cricket which propelled the great Sunil Gavaskar and later even Kapil Dev into Test cricket for they came up with some outstanding performances.

Effectively, for no fault of theirs, the University cricketers are made to suffer.

So is the case for the players in netball and football as the AIU failed to act in time to get things right. And why should the players suffer for the failure of the officials to do their job efficiently, is the big question.