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Home > Sports News > Cricket News > Article > MCA dumps Milind Rege who blooded 15 year old Sachin Tendulkar

MCA dumps Milind Rege who blooded 15-year-old Sachin Tendulkar

Updated on: 27 May,2017 08:15 AM IST  |  Mumbai
Subodh Mayure | subodh.mayure@mid-day.com

Milind Rege, who blooded the 15-year-old Sachin Tendulkar in first-class cricket, was removed as chairman of Mumbai's senior selection committee and replaced with Ajit Agarkar

MCA dumps Milind Rege who blooded 15-year-old Sachin Tendulkar

Milind Rege
Milind Rege


Sachin Tendulkar's beginnings have become a topic of discussion once again due to the release of his doco-drama Sachin: A Billion Dreams. Yesterday, the man who was in the Mumbai selection panel, which blooded the 15-year-old Tendulkar in first-class cricket in December 1988, was removed as chairman of Mumbai's senior selection committee and replaced with Ajit Agarkar. Rege offered no comments on his removal and claimed that he was hearing it first from mid-day.


TheMumbai Cricket Association's (MCA) Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) chaired by former Test batsman and MCA managing committee member Pravin Amre yesterday decided to virtually revamp Mumbai's senior selection committee.


Then chairman of Mumbai selectors, Milind Rege offers some tips to top order batsman Jay Bista during a felicitation function for the champion Mumbai U-23 team at the CCI on March 9, 2016. Pic/Atul KambleThen chairman of Mumbai selectors, Milind Rege offers some tips to top order batsman Jay Bista during a felicitation function for the champion Mumbai U-23 team at the CCI on March 9, 2016. Pic/Atul Kamble

The CIC replaced former Mumbai captain Milind Rege (68) with another erstwhile Mumbai skipper, Ajit Agarkar after a three-hour long meeting yesterday. The senior selection committee also picks the Mumbai under-23 team.

Rege's committee included Ravi Thakkar, Nishit Shetty and Jatin Paranjape. However, Paranjape, an India selector for a brief period last season, was retained.

Rege's committee picked the Ranji Trophy-winning team in 2015-16 while Mumbai entered the final of the national championships last season when they lost to Parthiv Patel's Gujarat in Indore.

No call to Rege
It is learnt that the CIC did not even bring up Rege's name while deciding on the new panel.

"We need new ideas and Ajit (Agarkar) who has played all formats of the game will definitely come in with fresh ideas. We had not discussed any other candidate for the chief selector's post. There is no better candidate than Ajit who can do this job," Amre, who chaired his first CIC meeting, told mid-day yesterday.

Agarkar's committee includes Paranjape, former India left-arm-spinner and Mumbai skipper Nilesh Kulkarni and ex-Mumbai batsman Sunil More. When asked whether it is a disadvantage having three new selectors in the panel, Amre said: "They have enough time to do their homework. That's why we picked them much before (the start of the new season).

Interestingly, Mumbai's new chief selector Agarkar is also a CIC member along with former Mumbai skipper Amol Muzumdar. Both Mumbai stalwarts attended the meeting. The change of guard decision comes in the backdrop of a recent controversy concerning the selection of teams for the Madhav Mantri under-23 tournament.

Selectors given instructions
The MCA asked the senior selectors to pick five teams as against the usual three sides for the tournament. Rege did not mind the change, but was livid when the selectors were given a list of players to be picked in the teams. He dashed off a letter to the MCA president Ashish Shelar (a copy of which is with mid-day) to register his protest.

Like Amre, MCA Jt Secretary Dr Unmesh Khanvilkar made it clear that there was no discussion on Rege in yesterday's meeting. "It is a cricketing decision taken by cricketers and CIC members only. They came with names and picked them," said Khanvilkar.

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