Mumbai cricket coach Amol Muzumdar urges for psychologist

Amol Muzumdar. Pic/Subodh Mayure

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) Apex Council had a detailed discussion on Mumbai's poor show in the recent tournaments during their emergent meeting at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. It is learnt that the Council members raised their concerns about the selection process and also asked President Dr Vijay Patil to sack members of the Jatin Paranjape-headed Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC). The defending champions were knocked out in the league stage of the Vijay Hazare Trophy as Mumbai managed only a solitary win recently. Earlier, in November, Mumbai failed to make a good impression in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.

As reported in mid-day on December 17, MCA treasurer Jagdish Achrekar called for a mentor to be appointed for the struggling Mumbai team. It is learnt that Dr Patil called former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar and both will meet next week to discuss the matter. Achrekar had suggested names of Vengsarkar, former India bowlers Balvinder Singh Sandhu, Raju Kulkarni and ex-Mumbai chief selector Milind Rege for the role.

The Apex Council had another meeting which involved Mumbai head coach Amol Muzumdar, senior selection committee members and the CIC on Tuesday when Muzumdar expressed the need for a sports psychologist and a tour to Bengal prior to the Ranji Trophy season, which begins in Kolkata on January 13.

In another development, 16 of the 30 Mumbai U-16 probables were found overage in bone tests conducted by BCCI recently. Mumbai will be participating in the U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy scheduled to begin on January 12 in Rajkot. To avoid future embarrassment, MCA is thinking of conducting bone tests on players prior to selection matches.