Former India spinner and National Cricket Academy coach Arshad Ayub gives tips to one of the players attending a state camp organised by the Assam Cricket Association in Guwahati on Thursday. Picture by S.H. Patgiri

Guwahati, Sept. 29: Long-time Assam Ranji selector Bimal Bharali has retired hurt.

The chairman of the selectors has put in his papers, reportedly as a protest against the Assam Cricket Association (ACA)?s appointment of Karnataka?s K. Sanath Kumar as the coach of the senior team and its habit of tinkering with the players? line-up before a match.

Sources in the association revealed today that ACA secretary Bikash Baruah?s June 21 claim ? that Kumar?s appointment was recommended by the three-member Ranji coach selection committee that had met on June 19 ? was far from the truth and had upset Bharali.

?The ACA passed off its decision to appoint Kumar as the recommendation of the committee. Bharali was unhappy with the ACA?s attitude and even took up the matter with the association?s top brass. He asked them to set the record straight by issuing a clarification. When that did not happen, Bharali, as is his nature, quietly called it quits,? an ACA insider revealed.

?The ACA is within its rights to appoint or sack someone. But what Bharali did not approve is the way the ACA went about it ? first appointing a committee for the purpose and then ignoring it completely,? the source offered by way of explanation.

?The minutes of the June 19 meeting clearly show that the coach selection committee, comprising Bharali, Naren Sabhapandit and Parimal Bhattacharjee, had stated that the ACA should check out some more candidates and if none was found suitable, they could appoint former state player Amal Das as the Ranji coach,? the insider added.

The other thing that, according to the insiders, had been troubling Bharali for some time was the officials? penchant to ?tinker? with the final XI after it had been agreed upon by the selectors, the coach and the captain ? a development that adversely affected the performance of the team. Assam was demoted to the Plate group last year.

?It is true he was given a free hand but no one had the courtesy to inform him about the reasons for why X was included and Y dropped even though he was the chairman of selectors. He found it very difficult to stomach this but continued to ignore it in the belief that things would improve. But that, too, didn?t happen,? a source added.

Bharali, a former middle order bat, chose to play straight, neither confirming nor denying the reported reasons for his quitting. ?Yeah, I have quit...but that is in the past. I have made my position known to the ACA. I am not an escapist, but I realised I was not being able to contribute to the development of Assam cricket. I hope a day will come when we can be proud of Assam cricket,? he said.

When contacted, the ACA secretary admitted for the first time that Bharali had quit citing pressing business commitments.

However, he maintained that the ACA followed the coach selection committee?s recommendations on Kumar and added that they had tried Das but he was not available.

Baruah also denied any ACA official?s interference in the selection process. He nevertheless accused former captain Sukhwinder Singh, who quit early this year, of tinkering with the final XI.

Efforts to contact Sukhwinder Singh proved futile but sources close to him asserted he would also have his own take on the development.