KOLKATA: In a major embarrassment for Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), the two newcomers to the Bengal
Ranji Trophy squad -
Geet Puri
and
Raj Kumar Pal - had to be sent back after the squad landed at Jaipur on Saturday afternoon, for their Ranji Trophy match against Team Rajasthan from Tuesday.
It was learnt that the duo has not been registered for the tournament, the deadline for which has long expired. CAB officials, who were caught unaware about this rule, woke up to the reality once the two reached the Pink City. Incidentally, many eyebrows were raised when on Thursday, the two were named in the Bengal squad for their last two league matches.
Both the bowlers did not feature in the pre-season Bengal probables list and hence their names were not registered for the domestic season. The selectors washed their hands off the fiasco stating that their job did not call for checking the status of players. Puri, a left-arm pacer and Pal, a left-arm spinner were reportedly hand-picked ahead of a number of registered players for their good and consistent performances in local league matches this season. But the whole exercise now not only proved to be futile, but also put the officials in poor light.
CAB's late effort to push their case also did not materialize as the BCCI turned down their request.
This unexpected turn of events forced the association to name replacements and as per a CAB release late on Saturday night, under-19 pacer
Golam Mustafa
and spinner
Ramesh Prasad
will now fly down to join the squad on Sunday. Mustafa, who has been impressive in this year's
Cooch Behar
Trophy campaign, had earlier been in the squad against Vidarbha, but did not make the playing XI.
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