Sachin Tendulkar's son Arjun fired on Twitter for 'nepotism', myth busted by 2016 article

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death sparked a fierce debate on social media about the nepotism that exists in India, which has often led to talent being sidelined. A lot of people claimed that it was nepotism that led to the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case. The 34-year old actor hung himself at his Bandra residence on June 14.

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Arjun Tendulkar was rightly selected in U-16 West Zone team over Pranav Dhanawade

Since then, a post has been doing the rounds on social media which shows that Arjun Tendulkar, son of the great Sachin Tendulkar, was selected over a 'much more deserving candidate' Pranav Dhanawade. This post had been viral for a long time and has again resurfaced on social media in the wake of the recent debates around nepotism.

Several people claimed that Arjun Tendulkar being selected over Pranav Dhanawade is a clear case of nepotism, which means that it is through influential connections that young people get more opportunities in an industry. However, when facts about the claim were checked, they were found to be misleading.

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Pranav Dhanawade is the son of a Kalyan auto-rickshaw driver, who hit a world-record 1009 not out off 327 balls with 129 fours and 59 sixes back in January 2016. In doing so, he had surpassed former England batsman Arthur Collins' score of 628, made in 1899. Dhanawade had made history when he scored a 1000 runs during the H.T. Bhandari Cup inter-school cricket tournament organised by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA). The teenager received a lot of praise from the cricketing fraternity. Even the likes of Sachin Tendulkar himself, Harbhajan Singh and MS Dhoni congratulated Dhanawade for his achievement.

The reason behind Pranav Dhanawade's exclusion U-16 West Zone squad

The social media debate between the two youngsters had first emerged back in June 2016 as a reaction to Arjun Tendulkar's selection in the U-16 West Zone squad. A lot of people had said that Pranav Dhanawade was overlooked in order to include Arjun Tendulkar in the team.

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However, according to The Logical Indian, Dhanawade who had just turned 16 back then, he was not selected because he was not eligible for selection in the West Zone side. According to the selection procedure, the candidate needs to be a player for Mumbai in order to be considered for selection in the zonal side. However, Dhanawade played the record-breaking innings after the Mumbai side was already picked and they had played few games by then.

In fact, according to First Post, Dhanawade's father Prashant had said four years ago that the selection for Mumbai's U-16 team happened before his son created the world record. He added that the Mumbai team had also played a few matches. Prashant Dhanawade clarified that since Pranav didn't feature for the Mumbai U-16 team, he cannot be a part of the West Zone side, that's the procedure.

Prashant Dhawade revealed that Arjun and Pranav are good friends and as a matter of fact, they speak regularly with each other. He added that Pranav too moved under the U-19 category, but since the selection was made when he was under the age of sixteen, he would complete his zonal matches before moving to the U-19 category, as per the BCCI rules.

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IMAGE COURTESY: TWITTER/ ANIKETBIRWATKA & SL CRICKET