Huge controversy in Delhi cricket! Ayush Badoni forced to stay in hotel; replaced by BCCI official's player

Delhi batsman Ayush Badoni, who is going through a very rough patch in his cricketing career, was asked to stay in the team hotel ahead of the Ranji Trophy match against Uttarakhand. Badoni came into the limelight during the Indian Premier League 2022, when he played some brilliant knocks for the Lucknow Super Giants against some quality international bowlers.

The decision was a new low in Delhi’s disastrous campaign in the Ranji Trophy, which was taken by some influential team officials. Its motive was to teach Ayush Badoni a lesson, reported PTI. However, his absence from the team didn’t make any changes in their fortune as they were wrapped up for 147 runs in their first innings in the Ranji Trophy Group D match against Uttarakhand being played in Mohali.

Amid Delhi‘s flop performance with the bat, Ayush Badoni, who played innings of 41 and 6 runs in the previous game, is the only player who can be said to have the potential to get selected for the national side. However, Kshitiz Sharma, who is notably regarded to be close to a former BCCI office holder, was given a chance against Uttarakhand. Sharma could only score 8 runs and was dismissed cheaply by Abhay Negi.

A senior DDCA official while speaking to PTI stated that there was pressure on the board to play Kshitiz Sharma and keep Ayush Badoni out of the 15. This was done because Badoni will also not get the allocated match that BCCI gives to every domestic player. The official further stated that the manager of the team would have had to arrange for his meals, as BCCI wouldn’t have paid for them during breaks or the match days.

Ayush Badoni forcefully kept in the team’s hotel by DDCA

He said, “Yes, there was pressure to play Kshitiz and specifically to keep Badoni out of 15, so that he doesn’t even get BCCI’s allotted match fees. Only 15 players are entitled to BCCI match fees. Since he can’t be allowed in PMOA (Players and Match Officials Area), it was thought that it would be better off to keep him in hotel.”

“The team managers would have had to arrange for his meals separately as BCCI wouldn’t have paid for it and also during breaks or match, he couldn’t have attended the nets as Punjab CA have their camp on. So it was better to keep him in hotel.”

“If Ayush would have scored a 100, those who desperately want to see him out of Delhi cricket wouldn’t have got a chance to raise their voice and push for cricketers like Kshitiz, who don’t deserve to be in the dressing room. Even he should take blame for not scoring runs,” the senior official added, as quoted by PTI.

Delhi batsman and former captain Yash Dhull was the highest run scorer for his team on Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy match against Uttarakhand. Dhull scored 47 runs from 94 balls and hit a total of 5 fours during his innings. Vaibhav Kandpal scored 22 from 43 balls whereas, Arpit Rana scored 19 runs from 35 balls. Hrithik Shokeen scored 15 runs whereas, Navdeep Saini was unbeaten on 10 runs.

However, no other batsman was able to touch the double-digits and even captain Himmat Singh departed without troubling the scorers.

Devendra Singh Bora and Abhay Negi picked up 3 wickets each for Uttarakhand whereas Akash Madhwal and Deepak Dhopala ended up with 2 wickets apiece.