There’s been a huge furore over the selection of Arjun Tendulkar in the Under-16 West Zone squad, some questioning if it was done at the cost of Pranav Dhanawade – the kid who broke the 1000-run barrier in a single knock recently.
Are you able to remember him? The 15-year-old player from Mumbai who took the cricket world by storm with his 1000-run knock in a local game in January 2016. So what had he done now? What was Arjun Tendulkar up to?
While the social media is unhappy that Arjun was selected because of ‘influence of his father’ – Sachin Tendulkar, they also argue that Pranav’s record innings of 1, 009 runs was ignored.
Tweets like these were plenty on social media. Are u being fair to Pranav Dhanawade, a rickshaw driver’s son?@ianuragthakur @sachin_rt @kamaalrkhan
Please RT! pic.twitter.com/YIo5ouqcoF — Pramod Speaks (@PramodSpeaks) 31 May 2016 But there is more to the story.
Speaking to Firstpost, Pranav’s father Prashant Dhanawade explained further, “The selection for Mumbai’s U-16 team happened before Pranav’s record. They had also played a few matches. So since Pranav didn’t feature for the Mumbai U-16 team, he cannot be a part of the West zone side, that’s the procedure.”
He also quashed reports that Arjun was favoured over Pranav courtesy Sachin’s contacts within the higher ups of BCCI. “Arjun and Pranav are good friends, they speak regularly with each other. Pranav too has now moved under the U-19 category, but since the selection was made when he was under the age of sixteen, he will complete his zonal matches before moving to the U-19 category, as per the BCCI rule.”
Mumbai Cricket Association joint secretary PV Shetty said it is difficult to pick Dhanawade right now. “I cannot say about the zonal selection but we cannot pick him in the Mumbai probables too unless he scores runs. We haven’t heard about him after he scored those 1,000 runs. But we will definitely include him if he starts scoring consistently,” said Shetty. MCA had rewarded Dhanawade with a monthly scholarship of Rs 10,000 after he achieved the feat
