Saba Karim
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Syed Saba Karim (born 14 November 1967) is a former
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er. He was a right-handed batsman and a
wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. ...
. Karim has also served in the corporate sector. He has worked in the Corporate Communications Division of TISCO. Saba has been very vocal about his views on various cricketing aspects like team performance, umpiring standards and day-night test matches etc. to name a few.


Career


First class career

Karim started his first-class career for
Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...
in 1982–83 at the age of 15, immediately after finishing his schooling at St. Xavier's High School, Patna. His career-best score was 234 against
Orissa Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of S ...
in the 1990-91 Ranji Trophy. He was first picked for India as a replacement for
Nayan Mongia Nayan may refer to: * Nayanthara (born 1984), Indian actress * Nayan Desai (born 1946), Indian poet * Nayan Mongia (born 1969), Indian cricketer * Nayan Ghosh (born 1956), Indian musician * Nayan Doshi (born 1978), British cricketer * Nayan Shah, ...
in the Standard Bank Series in South Africa in 1996-97 and he performed well with the bat when he scored 55 on debut and a 38 in the next match, however, his next eight innings saw him make 49 runs.


Eye injury

The effects of an eye injury suffered while keeping for India against Bangladesh in a limited-overs match in May 2000 ended his playing career. However, he played one
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, also against Bangladesh, in November 2000.


Involvement in cricket associations


Appointment with BCCI

On 1 January 2018, Saba Karim was appointed by BCCI as General Manager, Cricket Operations. Primarily, his major responsibilities held as giving strategic direction to the cricket department, implementing the operational plans, budgeting, determining and monitoring the compliance of match playing regulations, standards of venues, administration of Domestic Program. Apart from Saba, former pacer Venkatesh Prasad's name was also highlighted for applying for the same position.


National selector

On 27 September 2012 Saba Karim was appointed as the national selector from the East Zone.


Controversy

In September 2019, Karim was sent a notice by Bihar Cricket Association for interfering in the process of the age-verification test of the U-16 players by anti-doping manager Abhijit Salvi. As per the BCA chief, Karim stopped the checks once the players picked by the disqualified committee of the BCA were tested. The BCA chief in question remarked – "You should not forget that you are holding a public post in the BCCI as GM Cricket Operations and from the above actions, it is abundantly clear that you are bent upon allowing the disqualified committee to sell out the talent of Bihar. You should refrain from taking part in the politics of Bihar. Through this legal notice, I would like to request you to please refrain from doing all such acts. You should also not forget that none is above the law" In January 2020, Saba Karim's son Fidel Saba was booked under section 279 and 338 (grievous hurt to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) of IPC for ramming his Honda Jazz car numbered UP16 BJ0537 into a passing woman. In October 2019, Saba Karim was criticized for not arranging enough pink balls for the various domestic matches despite Sourav Ganguly's insistence on the same. A functionary was quoted as saying – "Had Karim ensured that we had domestic matches under lights, says knockouts of the Ranji Trophy or for that matter the Irani Cup, we would have had enough balls ready. But the whole idea was almost put into the boot of the car. There was no effort made. So now, when we have to provide for close to 48 balls – to the two teams, the match officials, etc – where do we get them from? How about substitute balls if one ball is hit out of the park after 34 overs? You need a ball of the almost same condition. Where do we get them from?” Since October 2019, Saba has been accused of the unconstitutional appointment of the support staff of the women's national team by CoA member Diana Edulji and BCCI's new apex council member Shantha Rangaswamy. Edulji wrote in an email to the BCCI CEO that candidates for the post of a video analyst for the national women's team were interviewed on Friday despite Pushkar Sawant, the current analyst, having been already nominated by Karim, without keeping the selectors in the loop.


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karim, Saba 1967 births Living people India Test cricketers Indian cricketers India One Day International cricketers Indian Muslims East Zone cricketers Bengal cricketers Bihar cricketers St. Xavier's Patna alumni Cricketers from Patna India national cricket team selectors Indian cricket commentators Wicket-keepers Cricketers from Bihar