By IANS
Kolkata : Former India coach Greg Chappell was in Kolkata barely for a day but that was enough for a little crowd of cricket fans to register their protest.
Chappell tried to stay away from the media glare after arriving here Friday night to spot young talents from the Ashok Malhotra Cricket Academy on behalf of the Jaipur team for the Indian Premier League (IPL). However, as he made his exit from the academy Saturday, he was greeted with slogans and placards of “Go Back Chappell”.
So excited were the motley group of protesting youngsters that one of them yelled “Go Back Sourav” in front of TV cameras. “Oops! delete that please, it was a mistake”, he quickly added and the group disappeared. Obviously the verbal clashes between Chappell and former India captain Sourav Ganguly was fresh in his mind.
To add to this, a few applicants in the selection trial were disappointed with Chappell’s selection process.
Amarjeet Singh from Rudrapur, an opener for his club, was asked to leave after just 10 knocks. “I had to spend a lot of money to come all the way from Rudrapur and attend this trial. Had I known we would be treated in this manner, I would’ve never attended the trial,” he said.
His team-mate Sukhvinder Singh, a leg spinner, was allowed to bowl just one ball before being told: “See you next time”.
Three applicants out of 487 were chosen – Adil Imam, wicketkeeper-batsman from the Videocon Cricket Academy, Suvaaankoor Das, another wicketkeeper-batsman from Rourkela and his state-mate Manas Muduli, a leg spinner.
The three players will form part of the 24-member squad in Jaipur where the final selection commences March 21. Out of the 24, only one gets a berth in the Jaipur side.
Chappell’s next stop is Delhi where another round of selection takes place March 19.