OCA makes mockery of selecting probables

Thirty-five days after naming 51 probables for State senior (Ranji Trophy) and under-22 teams, Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) made a mockery of the selection process by announcing another list 59 probables today. The first bunch of probables underwent coaching in two-phase camps, the second of which is still under way at the newly established Orissa Cricket Academy in Cuttack. But despite all these exercises, Orissa teams suffered humiliating defeats in two recent all-India tournaments at Bangalore (KSCA Invitation) and Chennai (Buchi Babu). After the disastrous performance, OCA has pulled its team out of another all-India tournament, scheduled to commence at Guwahati (Assam) from September 5. The fear of another embarrassment is believed to be the reason behind the pull out decision. But OCA secretary Asirbad Behera cites a different reason. ‘‘Assam Cricket Association’s decision to reduce the duration of matches from two-days to one-day forced us to opt out. One-day matches are not essential for our team,’’ he explained. A pre-participation coaching camp for the new probables would be conducted at the state cricket Academy from September 10 to 24, Behera said. Thereafter, the list of probables would be reduced to 48. The probables would then play a series of trial matches for finalisation of the two state teams. One surprising aspect of the selection process that, OCA did not consider including experienced off-spinner Sanjay Satpathy and wicket-keeper Priyabrat Pradhan in the list of probables. Probables for state teams: Previous: Samir Mohanty, Natraj Behera, Bikash Pati, Paresh Patel, Haladhar Das, Niranjan Behera (Cuttack), Subit Biswal, Rakesh Mohanty, Partha Sarathi Patnaik, Basant Mohanty, Preetamjit Das, Sukanta Khatua, Bibhudutta Panda, Santosh Jena, Deepak Behera, Alok Pradhan, Dheeraj Singh, Neeraj Besra, Ansuman Gope, Debasis Mohanty, Sayed Zaki, P Jayachandra, Rajesh Beuria, P R Sinha, Sandip Mulia, Prasant Sahu. Sambit Rout, Subhrajit Sahu, Rashmi Ranjan Das, Atish Jena, Pravanjan Mullick, Biplab Samantaray, Rajesh Sethi, Santosh Sethi, Satyen C Mohanty, Sayed Moinuddin, Abhilash Mallick, Rupak Pradhan, Asmit Rout, Alok Mangaraj, Alok Sahu, Tapendra Singh, Anand Sahu, Anil Buda, Niranjan Behera (Bhubaneswar), Roshan Swain, Mohammad Azhar, Lagnajit Samal, Govind Poddar, Sanjib Barik, Shiv Sundar Das. New: Gautam Sahoo, Sabyasachi Acharya, Partha Samal, Krushna Mohanty, Sourav Sehgal, Chitta Ranjan Swain, Devraj Kar, Tukuna Sahu.