The spate of injuries to their players have forced Mumbai Indians to seek a replacement from the governing council of the Champions League Twenty20 but the council apparently turned down their request.
It has been learnt that the Mumbai franchise sought a replacement for their wicketkeeper batsman Davy Jacobs who sustained an injury before their second match against Trinidad and Tobago recently. The request, however, was not accepted.
Their plea was referred to the technical committee of the CL but the committee, comprising Ravi Shastri, Michael Brown, Dean Kyno and Niranjan Shah, did not see any merit in it. They have apparently asked the team to get on with Ambati Rayudu, who “kept wickets for the Mumbai Indians” in about 13 matches of the IPL.
The Mumbai Indians’ contention, one is given to understand, is that Jacobs is a foreign player and they should be allowed a foreign replacement for the South African. Even Mumbai’s stand-in skipper Harbhajan Singh hinted that they were looking for a replacement. “I think our management is looking into the matter. We have to have another player in the side; we only have 13 players,” Harbhajan had said before their Monday’s match against Trinidad and Tobago.
Jacobs picked up an injury while batting at the nets on Sunday.
In the 23-member original Mumbai squad, there are two specialist wicketkeepers. Aditya Tare is the second ’keeper in the side but the team went into most of their IPL matches without either of them. They preferred Rayudu, who kept the wickets in the match against T&T on Monday.
The Mumbai Indians have already raised eyebrows of the other teams by having got the four-foreign-player rule waived off exclusively for them for the tournament. The other participating teams have reportedly expressed reservations against the concession granted to them.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the nine existing IPL teams was called but cancelled after certain teams expressed inability to attend it. The IPL office sent out letters to all the franchises for a meeting on October 3 in Bangalore but later called it off. The new date for the meeting has not yet been finalised.
