Unwilling to toe the line, another HCA selector quits

HYDERABAD: Yet another senior selector bites the dust in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) this season. Like the previous two – P Ramesh and Srinivas Chakravarthy – Jyothi Shetty too put in his papers on Thursday citing that players are being 'changed' without the 'approval of the entire selection panel'.
In a letter addressed to HCA president G Vivekanand, Shetty said: "I, the undersigned, would like to bring to your kind notice that the selection process with the Senior Selection Committee is not going in the right direction and as such I continuing in the same is of no consequence as players are being changed in the teams according to the whims and fancies of the other selectors.It is most unfortunate that I was not informed of the selection of the U-23 team which is playing against Saurashtra at Gymkhana Grounds from the 23rd to the 26th of November, 2017.
"Sir, in such a situation when performance is of no consequence and deserving players are being omitted, I do not wish to continue as a member of the Senior Selection Committee in the larger interest of Hyderabad Cricket."
Unlike the previous selectors, who are supposed to have resigned because of interference by the HCA officials, Shetty has raised fingers at his fellow selectors. "I had returned from Guwahati along with Arvind Shetty at around 2 a.m. on November 22. I had said that as the U-23 team had done well there was no need to make any changes in the squad. I had told my fellow selector that if that was the case then the same list could be released but if there are supposed to be any changes then he should inform me about the meeting," Shetty told TOI on Friday afternoon.
"Later, I came to know that the U-23 team was announced with a couple of changes without my presence in the meeting (which is supposed to be convened by the HCA secretary). I was told to sign the list but I refused to do so. I told Arvind that we could meet in the evening and have a fresh meeting but he said that they had already signed the list as the HCA officials wanted those changes in the squad," he added.
"I don't understand why reserve players (U-23) are dropped from the squad without giving them a chance to prove themselves. There is no constituency in the selection process at all. It is very unfortunate that my fellow selectors are just toeing the line of the administrators, whose interest lies only in nurturing their vote-bank or pleasing the political bosses. A cricketer cannot be the stooge of the administrators," Shetty said.
He also said that he had no role to play in the selection of the Ranji Team for the Delhi game as he had submitted his resignation by that time. "The selection of a couple of players raises eyebrows namely KSK Chaitanya, T Sukanth and Himalay Agarwal. Chaitanya was not even in the U-23 playing XI and how can he be brought into the Ranji squad. Someone like P Rohit Reddy or PS Chaitanya could have been better. Sukanth gets in because of one half-century he scored in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup and Himalay, who was kept out of all teams till now, suddenly finds favour. Is all this not absurd," Shetty questioned.
He also said that there was too much of interference on the field with a lot of pressure being mounted on the coaches and captains. "In such a scenario, my conscience is not permitting me to stay in this set up and that’s why I decided to quit," he added.