The 17-year old batting sensation, Sarfaraz Khan, has left Mumbai’s Ranji side. He will start playing for Uttar Pradesh from the next season. The young lad first got his share of fame after scoring a record 439 runs at the age of 12 in the Harris Shield inter-school tournament. It seems that it is a double blow for the Mumbai team after batsman Hiken Shah was banned by BCCI following his ‘inappropriate approach’ towards Ranji teammate Pravin Tambe.
Sarfaraz showcased a spark of his talent in the recent IPL season while playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. In quite a surprising incident, the MCA had withheld Sarfaraz’s entire match fees for allegedly making an inappropriate action. While talking about him, Mumbai Cricket association (MCA) Jt secretary PV Shetty said – “He and his father came this evening to get the NOC (No objection certificate) from me. I tried to persuade Sarfaraz to stay on, but his father (Naushad) argued that his son was ‘promised’ that he would get to play for the UP team. This is something which we can’t promise here, and it depends entirely on his performances. I tried to make them understand that we’ve supported him at every level, and it is through Mumbai that he played for the India Under-19 team, but it was in vain.”
While justifying his son’s decision, Naushad said – “He’ll leave Mumbai with a heavy heart. He’ll play in the local tournaments whenever he’s available. I have brought many boys from UP to Mumbai for an opportunity here. This is a similar case. It’s just that my son is getting a chance to play there.” Sarfaraz made his first appearance in Ranji last year against Bengal and scored 95 runs in three matches. He has also played 5 List ‘A’ and 19 Twenty20 games for Mumbai, at strike rates of 93.54 & 156.89 respectively.
