The domestic tournaments – Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy championships are important parts of the Indian cricket system, though they are not as popular as the Indian T20 league IPL but it is because of India has been able of producing some really good cricketers.
Sheldon Jackson is one such cricketer whose record in the domestic cricket is outstanding but currently he is pretty upset with the selectors and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Recently the BCCI announced the India A squad which will play against New Zealand A in three red ball format matches starting September 1 and many young cricketers such as Umran Malik, Rajat patidar, Tilak Varma, etc. get included in the squad but the selectors ignored Sheldon Jackson which didn’t go well with him.
The veteran Saurashtra batter took to the micro-blogging site Twitter to express his unhappiness as he tweeted, “I have a right to believe and dream that if I have performed for 3 continuous season, I may get picked on the basis of my performances not age, tired of hearing this that I’m a good player and performer but I’m old, I’m 35 not 75”.
https://twitter.com/ShelJackson27/status/1562436299885543424
In an interview that he has given recently, Sheldon Jackson says that many times he has been called a frustrated cricketer who is just venting out his anger. He adds that he is not a frustrated cricketer, he is a very happy person who has a loving family, he enjoys his life but he likes to ask questions on the issues related to his profession which is fair enough.
Sheldon Jackson’s average in first class cricket is more than 50 and his name appears at the second spot in the list of batsmen who have scored the most centuries for Saurashtra as he has scored 17, just four less than Cheteshwar Pujara.
Sheldon Jackson is also not selected for the West Zone for Duleep Trophy and he says that he wants to play for the country but he is not selected even for Duleep Trophy because of his age then how he will reach there. He adds that he is expecting to get selected in India A and there is nothing wrong in expecting but it is certainly demotivating when you are stopped because of the reasons on which you have no control.
He questions as to why age is a criterion to get selected in the national team because then it means that the selectors are breaking the dreams of 25-30 percent of players who are playing in domestic cricket. He further says that he is not speaking on behalf of all those cricketers, he is speaking just for himself and while referring to the selectors, he says that they can’t stop someone from dreaming to play at higher level.
Sheldon Jackson goes on to state that though he is 35 yrs old now and he is being termed as old, he has been hearing this excuse since he was 31 yrs old and presently they have picked 6 cricketers who are above 30. Sheldon Jackson who plays for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL also says that earlier he was told no player above 30 yrs would get selected but now when players in mid-thirties are getting selected in the national team, why this criterion is not adopted for domestic cricket as well. He concludes by saying that he feels it has become a tactic to select someone in the team and when you have no other reason to tell why a player is not selected, his age is cited as the reason.
Do you agree with Sheldon Jackson? What are your views in this regard? Share with us.
