Found Anurag Thakur to be an average player: Ex-J&K bowler

Mumbai: The Chief Justice of India, Tirath Singh Thakur was not impressed with the CV of the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur, which describes him as a cricketer.

“We are all cricketers here. Even I am the captain of the Supreme Court cricket team,” the CJI said when Kapil Sibal, the BCCI lawyer, said Anurag Thakur – the board president – is a former Ranji trophy player.  The senior advocate and the ex-Union minister was replying to a question raised by the SC on BCCI officials’ qualifications to run the board.

Interestingly, the BCCI president has played (and captained) a solitary Ranji match for Himachal Pradesh against Jammu and Kashmir. In the only match, which they lost; Anurag Thakur was out for a duck.

The four day match was played in Jammu in November 2000.

"We found him to be an average player but our team recognised him as the son of then the chief minister," Surendra Singh Bagal, the bowler of the opposite team, who got Thakur out, said from Jammu.

"The whole team respected him as the minister's son and I was determined to take his wicket on my first ball and I did so," the left-arm medium pacer said.

"He played six balls of the other bowlers and could not open his account. He misread my first ball of the over and gave an easy catch to the fielder," he added.

"Anurag was not an outstanding player but he still took two wickets against us," revealed Bagal.

According to a report, Thakur played the Ranji match merely as a player and the team was led by Rajeev Nayyar.

However, Rajeev Nayyar, now the selector for the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) clarified, "I was the captain in the earlier four-day match and had scored over 300 runs. I am not aware why I was sacked as the captain. Anurag Thakur was the captain in this (HP vs J&K) match."

By playing that one Ranji trophy match, Thakur qualified to become Indian junior selector, the rest is history.