Monty Panesar open to representing Puducherry in Ranji Trophy
Former England cricketer Monty Panesar is eyeing a return to professional cricket by playing in the Ranji Trophy later this season for Puducherry, the one team that allows overseas players. Panesar's Test career spanned 50 games in which he claimed 167 wickets at an average of 34.71.
The veteran left-arm spinner, who lived his finest moments in the longest format during the India tour in 2012, has hopes to play for Puducherry as he is ‘still working hard’ to get his name enrolled into a County side.
“I am still trying to play professional cricket, but I have not found a County (team) yet. I am still working hard to find a County. I may try and play Ranji Trophy this year. I think there is one team — Puducherry — that allows overseas players to play,” Panesar was quoted saying by The Telegraph.
Puducherry, who have West Indies legend Alvin Kallicharan as their mentor, have already roped in three outstation players for this season — Karnataka’s R. Vinay Kumar, Tamil Nadu’s Arun Karthik and Paras Dogra from Himachal Pradesh. However, when asked about the possibility of Panesar’s inclusion in the squad, a Puducherry team official said that there's no confirmation on that yet. “Three outstation players have been finalised. But there’s no clue regarding Monty’s inclusion.”