MUMBAI: Just 24 hours ahead of their departure to Rajkot for the women’s under-19 One-day league matches, the Mumbai under-19 women’s team was hit by covid scare as a player tested positive on Sunday morning and was hence ruled out.
The 22-member squad, which has now been reduced to 21, was undergoing a camp at the MCA’s BKC facility, and played a practice match on Sunday. “The player was feeling feverish for the last three days. As per the BCCI protocol of testing a player 72 hours before a domestic tournament, all the players were tested on Saturday. After her test came positive, she didn’t play the match today, and was immediately taken home by her father,” a source in the The Mumbai Cricket Association told TOI.
“It shouldn't be much of a problem. Nowadays anybody can be hit by COVID-19. All the other players tested negative. As per the BCCI protocols, the team will quarantine for six days in a bio-bubble after reaching Rajkot, where they’ll be tested daily. So things should be fine,” he said.
The camp wasn’t held in a bio-bubble, which means that the players were travelling daily to BKC from their homes.
MCA Apex Council to meet CIC, selectors on Monday
The MCA will on Monday hold an urgent meeting of the Apex Council, its Jatin Paranjape-led Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) and the chief selectors of all the selection committees. The agenda of the meeting is to discuss the cricketing activities of the 2021-22 season.
Former India pacer Salil Ankola is the chairman of the senior selection committee, Atul Ranade heads the under-19 panel, Mandar Phadke is the Mumbai under-16 chief selector and Jayprakash Jadhav is the under-14 chairman.
“As requested by the Apex Council members, an urgent joint meeting of the AC, CIC and the chairpersons of all the selection committees will be held on Monday at 4 pm at the office of the association. You are requested to attend the same,” reads the notice (a copy is with TOI) sent out to all the concerned people by MCA secretary Sanjay Naik.
Besides Paranjape, the CIC includes ex-India players Vinod Kambli and Nilesh Kulkarni.
“In recent times, a few members of the Apex Council have felt that they needed to have direct communication with the CIC and the selectors. This meeting will provide that platform,” said a source in the MCA.
Ombudsman postpones hearing
The MCA’s Ethics Officer-cum-Ombudsman justice (retd) Vijaya Tahilramani has postponed her first case hearing since taking over the post in March this year.
Tahilramani has scheduled for September 22, at the MCA HQ, the hearing for a petition Neil Savant had filed, on August 23, against the MCA in which he alleged “personal data security breach and data privacy violation of players and match officials via the MCA’s new players’ registration software launched by the association on 2nd August, 2021.”
“This is to inform you that due to unavoidable circumstances, the Ombudsman would not be available on 22.09.2021. A fresh date will be intimated to you shortly,” Tahilramani has written in an email to Savant.
