Tainted Chavan's 'shadow' haunts MCA

MUMBAI: It was a gaffe that aptly reflected the tragedy that is Indian cricket at this point. The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA)'s function to honour Mumbai teams across all age categories from the U-14 level to the side that won the 40th Ranji title was going on smoothly, with all the top cricketers including Sachin Tendulkar in attendance, till the emcee of the show, BCCI's media manager Devendra Prabhudesai, committed an error.

While reading out the names of the players who were a part of the Ranji-winning side, which was supposed to receive a special cash prize to the tune of Rs 2 crore from the MCA (over and above BCCI's prize money of Rs 2 crore), Prabhudesai read out tainted spinner Ankeet Chavan's name, too.

While Chavan had played his part in the triumph with 33 wickets, his alleged involvement in spot fixing during the IPL has meant the left-arm spinner is behind bars currently, and has been suspended by the BCCI.

It automatically means Ankeet is not eligible for any awards in a BCCI-organised tournament. None came forward to receive the award at the function, in which the chief guest was former BCCI and ICC chief and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Prabhudesai later clarified that it was a case of "human error." "We had prepared for this event before the India-Australia series. Then, the IPL kept us busy. Plus once you are on stage, a thing like this can happen," he told TOI.

The MCA officials clarified that there was no question of Chavan receiving any prize money, and it was just a 'mistake.' Clearly, the officials had forgotten to strike off the tainted bowler's name from the list.

Beyond this glitch, there was everything fantastic about the event, in which the MCA honoured the top individual performers across all age groups from the 2007-08 season onwards.

Tendulkar received the award for the fastest century this season in Ranji Trophy (vs Railways at the Wankhede). The maestro, however, would have been more delighted to see his son Arjun sprint to the podium to collect his individual award for being part of the Mumbai U-14 team which won the West Zone title this season.

The gathering saw the presence of several former Test and first-class cricketers, including Madhav Mantri, the country's oldest-living cricketer.

Ajinkya Rahane, who missed on an India berth for the Champions Trophy, had the consolation of winning an award for the fastest Ranji hundred for the 2010-11 season. Rohit Sharma, currently with the Indian team in England, won a similar prize for the 2011-12 season.

There were special awards for five former cricketers — Dilip Vengsarkar, Chandrakant Pandit, Sandeep Patil, Abey Kuruvilla and woman cricketer Vrindha Bhagat.

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Shweta Pandey

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