Jammu and Kashmir have faced four humiliating defeats on a trot in the ongoing Under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy, raising questions on the selection of the squad.
The team suffered a series of heavy defeats, starting with an innings and 144-run loss to Uttarakhand, followed by an innings and 204-run defeat to Vidarbha. They were then beaten by Karnataka by an innings and 149 runs and latestly, another crushing loss to Rajasthan by an innings and 200 runs.
Several players and parents have alleged that this horrific performance is mostly due to JKCA’s nepotism in the selection.
“Whenever any J&K team wins a match, we see how JKCA sub-committee members go gaga over it. Why are they silent on this humiliating performance of the J&K U-16 team?” a parent of a player, wishing not to be named, told KSW.
“The entire team is blue-eyed. They have just picked their own players and left out the deserving ones,” the parent added.
There are several allegations that most of the players in the team are selected from a particular academy, which has ties with one of the sub-committee members.
“If you thoroughly check the squad, you will find most of the squad is from a particular academy, which has ties with one of the sub-committee members. Even the selectors have been coaches of that academy,” a former JKCA official claimed.