Munaf loses his way in the fast lane

AHMEDABAD: After a morale-boosting five-wicket haul against the visiting Kiwis in a recent tour game held at Rajkot, he had a chance of getting a berth in the Indian squad.
On his own, he wanted to be with Mumbai, the defending Ranji Trophy champions.
But Munaf Patel, rookie paceman from Bharuch, has landed in a "neither here nor there’’ situation with even his parent body, the Gujarat Cricket Association, giving him a cold shoulder.
On Tuesday, GCA announced the Gujarat Ranji Trophy squad without his name appearing in the 14-member team list. Earlier, the Mumbai squad was named without Munaf in it either.
In short, 20-year-old paceman, who made waves with his speed and impressed none less than Sachin Tendulkar himself recently, will be left cooling his heels at home as the current domestic season gets rolling with Gujarat taking on Hyderabad at Motera from November 7 onwards.
The tall pace bowler, who first hit the headlines after being spotted by Australian fast bowling guru, Dennis Lillee, will now have to wait for some more time to make his Ranji Trophy debut. He has played in only a few under-25 inter-association matches so far.
Gujarat coach Vijay Patel and skipper Mukund Parmar skirted the issue when contacted. Parmar is participating in an inter-bank tournament in Chandigarh and says he doesn’t know much as he was injured and did not attend much of the 20-day fitness camp.
With GCA president Narhari Amin abroad and secretary Vikram Patel busy as the local manager of the visiting Australian team, it was left to executive committee member Hitesh Patel to explain that it was Munaf who was responsible for the predicament he was now in. “Munaf did not approach us with an NOC request all this while when he knows the September 30 is the cut-off date.�
“When we learned from media that he was joining Mumbai, we requested Mumbai Cricket Association to fax us the NOC that was produced by the bowler.�
“Last season he played a match for GCA and we have been sending him to the MRF academy. So he should show a little courtesy to the association if he wants to join another side.�
“Last week he approached me and chief coach Anshuman Gaekwad at the Motera stadium. But he could not produce the contract of the job he is supposed to have taken up in Mumbai,� added Hitesh.
“We told him to meet concerned officials at Mumbai during the recent India-Australia tri-series one-dayer. However, he failed to sort matters out there and now Vikram is busy till the end of the month.�
All, Munaf’s uncle, Ismail, could say at the moment was that his nephew was in the Gujarat squad. He promised to speak more on the issue later.