It was a red-letter day for the 63-year-old Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) for one of its illustrious cricketer - M.S.K. Prasad - was nominated to the coveted post of the chief selector of the Senior National Selection Committee at the BCCI annual general body meeting held in Mumbai.
Last year, M.S.K. Prasad was appointed as the member of this panel and this year after the retirement of Mumbai’s Sandeep Patil, the BCCI think tank picked the Guntur-born cricketer for the post. Incidentally, Prasad made his debut for India in 1998.
“My six years of hard work as ACA director laid the platform to bag these prestigious posts and I am thankful to ACA secretary Gokaraju Gangaraju who believed in me and encouraged to spread the game in the 13 districts,” he told The Hindu from Australia.
Many coaches and administrators felt that it was time Andhra players performed well to stake their claim in the Indian team.
“Andhra was always treated as the punching bag earlier. But now ACA is looked up by other associations for its progressive policies. Andhra boys should do well to draw the attention selection committee,” felt Andhra Pradesh Table Tennis Association secretary S.M. Sultan, “It is a big achievement,” he added.
When former ACA secretary Chamundeswarnath was the junior National Selection Committee chairman, he helped talented Andhra boys like D. Sumanth, A.G. Pradeep, A.G. Praveen, Gnaneswar Rao, Ambati Rayudu and D. Siva Kumar to play for the country in the junior teams in tournaments like Asia Cup and World Cup.
When late Meher Baba was the member of the junior national selection committee in the 90s, he spotted the talented players like M.S. K. Prasad, V.V.S. Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Vanka Pratap and selected them for the junior teams.
Prasad made his début for India in 1998. He thanks ACA secretary for encouraging him
