How Anurag Thakur selected himself as captain of Ranji team - Shimla Now

On 23 November 2000, on a chilly winter morning at the Maulana Azad Memorial Stadium by the Tawi river in Jammu, Himachal Pradesh faced J&K in what was their fifth match of the 2000-01 Ranji Trophy season. Himachal had by then lost two matches and two others had ended in a draw.

Anurag Thakur, a Himachal player who made his Ranji debut, played a lacklustre innings, getting out for a duck after spending seven minutes at the crease, facing seven balls. But his appearance was remarkable for two reasons.

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It was possibly the only time in the 80-year history of Ranji Trophy, India's pre-eminent domestic first class Cricket tournament, that a debuting player was named skipper of a state team. It was also the only instance when the chairman of a state selection committee had selected himself to the team and thought it fit to captain the side.

About two months before that remarkable appearance, Thakur had been elected the president of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), which meant that he now headed the state selection committee. According to a former HPCA official who served at the time, Thakur had neither appeared in selection trials nor played in inter-district matches—prerequisites to be eligible for a state cap. He was 25 years old then and his father Prem Kumar Dhumal was the chief minister of Himachal. That one appearance gave Thakur first class ranking.

The next year, when it was Himachal's turn to nominate a national selector in a meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the state association president, Thakur, nominated himself, armed with the eligibility of having played in a Ranji side. With cricketing experience of one first class match in which he failed to score a run (but took two wickets), Thakur served as a national junior selector for the next three years. (The BCCI has subsequently raised the eligibility for selectors to 25 Ranji matches). Thakur told ET that he decided to play in that match as Himachal cricket was then in "shambles" and he wanted to "change the attitude" of the team. He said the selectors had asked him to play as he had excellent under-19 and under-16 credentials.

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Economic Times
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