Sachin Tendulkar roped in to improve Mumbai cricket
SACHIN Tendulkar has agreed to be a special invitee to the Mumbai Cricket Association’s (MCA) Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) after being approached by committee chairman Dilip Vengsarkar. The CIC is in-charge of taking all decisions regarding the cricket activity in the MCA and it’s been re-formed after a gap of two years with Vengsarkar at the helm.
And in a text message, Tendulkar, who is on holiday in Italy, confirmed the development to The Indian Express, while insisting that he was ready to offer any help required for the sake of Mumbai cricket.”Yes, I am ready to help Mumbai cricket if they want my help. I am out of India till July. I have said I would not be there in the official capacity but would like to help Mumbai cricket as and when my schedule allows,” Tendulkar said.
Prior to the MCA’s biennial election, president Sharad Pawar too had spoken about wanting Tendulkar to groom youngsters in the city and that he had already held talks with the batting legend. And it was Vengsarkar who made the final call.
“I spoke to Sachin today and he’s agreed to share his views on Mumbai cricket. He will be a special invitee of the CIC and would attend meetings whenever he’s in Mumbai,” Vengsarkar said. Tendulkar has given pep talks to the younger members of the Mumbai team in the past as well, and during the opening Ranji Trophy league game last year, he had a chat with both the home team as well as the opposing Jammu & Kashmir outfit.
Tendulkar was recently roped in along with former captain Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman in the advisory panel of the BCCI’s cricket committee.
Tendulkar though is not the only former Mumbai and India captain to be included in the CIC with Vengsarkar also having brought in Ajit Wadekar, whose experience according to the chairman was invaluable.
Former Mumbai captains, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ajit Agarkar and Amol Muzumdar, former coach Praveen Amre, former India woman’s captain Diana Eduljee and MCA managing committee member Deepak Patil are also part of the CIC.
Players must adhere to Code of Conduct: Vengsarkar
The MCA had been faced with complaints regarding the behaviour of some of their players during the domestic season, and Vengsarkar, who is also the MCA vice-president, insisted that a disciplinary committee will be formed to look into these matters.
The MCA has interestingly never had a disciplinary committee in place and all decisions in these cases had to be taken by the managing committee. “Whether he is a superstar or an under-14 player, no one will be spared for any breach of the code of conduct. We are not going to tolerate any kind of misbehavior,” the former India captain added.
As reported by The Indian Express, the MCA is set to go back to its old structure regarding tournaments and they are scheduled to commence their Kanga League tournament on August 2.
