Delhi and Districts CA: World Cricket's Clowns of the Month, September 2015

They stand on the brink of the new season in India’s domestic Ranji Trophy competition, but the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association appear to be in disarray already.

As such, they must be named world cricket’s clowns of the month for September.

Their campaign in the Ranji Trophy begins on October 1, but September has been dominated by some curious selection decisions.

It all began as India’s fast bowler Ishant Sharma was initially left out of Delhi’s Ranji Trophy squad, reportedly because he did not respond to calls or text messages from the chairman of selectors, Vinay Lamba.

This development came hot on the heels of three separate squads being asked to report to training camp and no coach being formally appointed by the board.

However, the following day (September 24), Delhi announced they would in fact be selecting Sharma for the first game, even though the man himself said he would be available for the second game.

Sharma's initial absence was made all the more curious given his good form in the recent Test series India won against Sri Lanka 2-1. 

In addition, he is banned from the first Test of the Indian summer following a spat with Dinesh Chandimal in the final Test match against the Sri Lankans, which made him available for the Ranji Trophy.

Effectively, Delhi have selected Sharma for a game he has said he would like to be rested from, which is understandable given India’s pre-season camp finishes only three days before.

Schalk van Zuydam/Associated Press

Not content with one selection controversy, the Delhi selectors also left out all-rounder Rajat Bhatia despite a good record in all forms of the game over the last few years.

ESPN Cricinfo reported there is a rift between Bhatia and captain Gautam Gambhir, which may have played a part in his non-selection. However, this was denied in the ESPN Cricinfo piece. 

Later, Bhatia was critical of the DDCA, accusing them of not providing adequate facilities for practice and not communicating that he was dropped from the squad.

Bhatia said this to the Press Trust of India, (per ESPN Cricinfo):

"

I turned up at the nets on Thursday only to find out that hardly anything was in place a week before the first Ranji game. There were not enough balls to practise with and something as basic as drinking water was also hard to find. And then later in the day, I found out that I was dropped from the team. I have not seen a worse time than this.

"

Delhi’s newly appointed coach Ajay Jadeja said there should be better communication with the media, although perhaps better internal communication might be a good idea, too.

Little wonder that senior players like Virender Sehwag and Mithun Manhas transferred to other teams ahead of the new season.