'Play club cricket to be considered for Mumbai': Chief selector Kulkarni

Raju Kulkarni. Pic/Suresh Karkera

The Mumbai selectors have sent a strong message to all cricketers: If you want to play for Mumbai, you must play club cricket.

Big decision

Chief selector Raju Kulkarni's senior selection committee met at Mumbai Cricket Association's Bandra-Kurla Complex indoor academy on Tuesday and decided to make it mandatory for the aspiring Mumbai players to be part of the club circuit regularly.

"We are expecting all Mumbai probables to play club matches without offering any excuses, to be considered for the Mumbai team. We are absolutely clear," Kulkarni told mid-day after the meeting in which the panel picked the Shams Mulani-led 15-member squad for the Bapuna Cup T20 Invitation Tournament to be played from September 23 in Nagpur. Kulkarni stressed that this message will be delivered to all probables individually.

Also Read: Appointment of senior and U-23 selectors yet to be fixed by MCA, confirms Raju Kulkarni

Mumbai to miss Rahane

Mumbai will miss the services of India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane in Nagpur. It is learnt that Rahane conveyed his unavailability to the selectors and will join the Mumbai camp on October 1 to prepare for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy starting on October 16 in Jaipur.

Meanwhile, MCA's Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) chairman Lalchand Rajput has called a meeting with selectors and coaches on Saturday to discuss the Mumbai team's preparations for the domestic season.

Mumbai's squad for Bapuna Cup
Shams Mulani (captain), Prasad Pawar (vice-captain and WK), Musheer Khan, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Divyaansh Saxena, Suved Parkar, Sarfaraz Khan, Sujit Nayak, Hardik Tamore (WK), Tanush Kotian, Atharva Ankolekar, Tushar Deshpande, Dhawal Kulkarni, Sairaj Patil and Atif Attarwala