It’s not often that one finds Sachin Tendulkar in the middle of a controversy.
It’s not often that one finds Sachin Tendulkar in the middle of a controversy. However, the legendary cricketer has recently been at the receiving end of social media trolls and critics about his alleged nepotism in pushing for his son Arjun’s selection in an India U-16 team. The Internet went up in arms after reports suggested that Sachin’s son had been drafted into the side ahead of Mumbai wonder-kid Pranav Dhanawade, who made headlines recently by slamming an unbeaten 1008.
Many even aimed their criticism at the youngsters’ respective parentage, with Arjun being the son of Sachin and Pranav being an auto-driver’s son.
While detractors have been circulating memes, especially ones comparing Arjun and Pranav, many from within the cricketing circles have rallied in support of Arjun and have completely refuted the claims made by memes and critics. One such meme, which was pointed out as factually incorrect, claimed that Pranav was not picked for the ‘India U-16 team’ by BCCI selectors, while the truth is that there is no such team in the first place that is selected by the BCCI.
However, although the memes surrounding Arjun being selected over a more deserving player held little truth, there have been several instances in the past where dads have helped push their sons into teams in Indian cricket. Here is a round of a few instances when this has happened in the past.
Helping hand from dad Charges of nepotism have plagued Indian cricket for a long time. Some famous instances that caused a furore: Stuart Binny came under fire on social media when he was picked for the 2015 World Cup squad when his father Roger was still a member of the selection panel.
In 2011, the selection of Tamil Nadu batsman Anirudha Srikkanth into the squad for the Emerging Players Tournament in Australia raised several eyebrows, as his father Kirshnamachari Srikkanth was the then chairman of BCCI’s selection committee.
Arjun Yadav, son of former Hyderabad Cricket Association secretary and BCCI president Shivlal Yadav; Jaydev Shah, son of former BCCI official Niranjan Shah; Mihir Hirwani, the son of former Madhya Pradesh selector Narendra Hirwani are also among the names that have been at the receiving end of criticisms for their surnames.
Another case in point is former cricketer Hemant Kanitkar’s son Hrishikesh Kanitkar, the former left-handed batsman from Maharashtra. Hrishikesh’s selection for the Indian team in 1997 raised a few eyebrows. He went on to play 34 ODIs for India averaging just 17.84
Brijesh Patel’s son Udit’s selection in the India U-19 team for the Asian Cricket Council U-19 championship had stirred up a hornet’s nest.
