His former team, Tamil Nadu, are playing Railways in their Super League match in Delhi. The side he was to represent this year, Rajasthan, are involved in a Plate Division tussle against Assam in Guwahati. He himself is sitting at home, unsure of when he will step on to a cricket field next.

Former India middle-order Hemang Badani was one of the 79 ‘rebel’ cricketers who jumped the Indian Cricket League ship and took up the Indian cricket board’s amnesty offer in April this year. He is one of the few, though, who are yet to find a way back into the mainstream — through no fault of his — and has been spending the last couple of days following the Ranji Trophy on the internet.

The Tamil Nadu veteran was ignored by the Tamil Nadu side, who built a strong middle-order when Badani was away playing for the Chennai Superstars in the ICL. He was then contracted by the Rajasthan Cricket Association for the 2009-10 season, and would have been playing in Guwahati but for the power struggle that has played out at the association, with the ad hoc committee that has taken over refusing to play the ‘guest’ cricketers picked by their predecessors.

“I have no clue why am I not playing the Ranji match,” Badani told The Indian Express on Tuesday. “I haven’t been informed of the decision, nobody has bothered calling me. I have been trying to get in touch with them, I’ve called them and even texted them several times but they are yet to get back to me. I don’t know what’s happening.”

... contd.