Left-arm spinner and U-19 panel chairman Rajesh Pawar allowed to play inaugural Mumbai League
Rajesh Pawar in action for Parkophene last year
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Rajesh Pawar, 38, the former Mumbai left-arm spinner, will be part of the T20 Mumbai League as a player despite him being chairman of the Mumbai under-19 selection committee.
On Saturday, Pawar was bought for Rs 80,000, (base price Rs 50,000) by Mumbai North team at Mumbai Cricket Association's first ever player auction for the T20 League at a city hotel.
The six-team league will be played from March 11 to 21 at the Wankhede Stadium. "It will be a good opportunity for me. Though I am a selector, MCA has allowed me to play the T20 League," said Pawar who played the Kanga League for Parkophene Cricketers last season since he wants to make a comeback in first-class cricket. A little over 20 years ago, the diminutive Pawar impressed the Australians while he bowled to Mark Taylor's team in their warm-up game at Brabourne Stadium where he claimed three for 59 in Australia's first innings.
Balvinder S Sandhu and Lalchand Rajput. Pic/Suresh Karkera
India's Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and Mumbai's vice-captain Suryakumar Yadav emerged as the highest paid icon players — Rs 7 lakh each — during the auction.
Rahane and Yadav will lead Mumbai North and Mumbai North East respectively. The second-highest paid cricketer from the icon players category was Rohit Sharma, who will lead India in the T20 tri-series in Sri Lanka. Rohit was the sixth and last icon player who was picked by Mumbai North West team for Rs 6 lakh.
Mumbai's attacking batsman Shreyas Iyer, who played a few ODIs against South Africa recently, was bought for Rs 5 lakh by Mumbai North Central.
Experienced campaigner Abhishek Nayar and Mumbai's in-form batsman Siddhesh Lad were picked for Rs 4 lakh as icon players of Mumbai South and Mumbai South Central respectively.
Also read - Kanga League: Spinner Rajesh Pawar takes 6 wickets for no run
Mumbai pacers, Shardul Thakur and Dhawal Kulkarni were in the icon category, but were unsold. However, Kulkarni was picked up by Mumbai North East later for Rs 1.50 lakh. India's U-19 World Cup winning Prithvi Shaw who will represent Rest of India against Ranji Trophy winners Vidarbha from March 14 to 18, was picked by Mumbai North for Rs 2.80 lakh.
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