'Deserter' Agarkar gets off scot-free

“No action is being contemplated against Agarkar, who sought my permission to return home yesterday and I, in turn, asked Mumbai selection panel chairman (Milind Rege). Rege felt Ajit did not feel comfortable sitting in the reserves and can be permitted (to go back home),” MCA joint secretary Nitin Dalal said.

Agarkar, who had returned to the Mumbai squad for the previous game against Karnataka after missing the first two ties due to injury, was left out after the team management decided to include Avishkar Salvi and Dhawal Kulkarni as the support seamers for Zaheer Khan, who is testing his match fitness ahead of the tour to Australia.

“Agarkar was feeling humiliated after he was dropped for the match by the team management. He was an India player and we felt it would be better if he is allowed to return home instead of staying back with the team,” Dalal added.

Dalal also said the MCA officials will ask the team management and Agarkar to sit together with them and thrash out the differences after the squad returns. “We would sit with them and discuss the issue. He is available for selection for the next match (against Saurashtra at Rajkot from Dec 6-9),” Dalal added.

Selection panel chairman Rege sounded upset about the comments reportedly made by Zaheer Khan that he and team coach Sulakshan Kulkarni were ‘bringing down Mumbai cricket’.