Former Indian player Salil Ankola gets named as the new chief selector of the Mumbai Cricket Association.
Salil Ankola, who has played one Test and 20 ODIs during his professional career, is now named as Mumbai Cricket Association’s chief selector. His tenure will start on the forthcoming curtailed domestic season of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.
Talking about his new role, Ankola said, ‘I have been thinking of making a comeback for the last 5 years and in the past one year I have spoken to a lot of my friends seriously with the wish to come back and do something for Mumbai Cricket in any capacity for that matter’.
‘My heart lies here and I dream to contribute to Mumbai’s domestic success especially that the results have not been great for some time. I hope I can play a role in making Mumbai a Ranji Champion once again’, he added.
During his playing career, Ankola was able to take two wickets in his only Test match for India. Interestingly, this match played against Pakistan is also the debut Test of Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar. Aside from that, he has also taken 13 ODI scalps.
The 52-year-old also used to be featured in 54-first class matches before he retired at the age of 28 because of injuries. This made him pursue his acting career afterwards. Despite having retired early, he was able to take 181 wickets and earn his best figures of 6-47.
‘Ankola is a former India player who wanted to give something back to the game, which is why applied for the job and showed keen interest. Our committee made him the chief selector because we felt that he was the only former Test cricketer amongst the applicants’, MCA Cricket Improvement Committee (CIC) head Lalchand Rajput said about having Ankola with the team.
Other members of Ankola’s committee are Sanjay Patil, Ravindra Thaker, Zulfiqar Parkar and Ravi Kulkarni. So far, the name of the coach for the upcoming domestic season on January 10 is yet to be named by MCA. To learn more about how the sport is played, visit Betwala.
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