MUMBAI: Mumbai opener Prithvi Shaw wants to quit Mumbai and play for another state as a ‘professional.’The 25-year-old wrote to the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) on Monday seeking a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from his parent association. TOI has learnt that Shaw is moving to Mumbai’s neighbouring team, Maharashtra.“He has sought an NOC from us today. We have now established a protocol for this, as per which we will first inform our apex council members and then take a decision. He should get the NOC by the evening,” MCA secretary Abhay Hadap told TOI.Shaw was dropped by the Mumbai senior selection committee last year from the Ranji Trophy due to poor fitness and was prescribed a two-week fitness programme prepared by the MCA trainers. Unhappy with his attitude towards fitness and practice, the team management had informed the MCA that Prithvi Shaw’s body contains 35 percent fat and that he needed rigorous training before he could stage a comeback to the Mumbai side.It is learnt that Shaw had offers from a few states since last season, and after playing in the MCA’s T20 Mumbai League earlier this month, he finally decided to move to Maharashtra.Shaw made a comeback in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy last year but was dropped for the Hazare Trophy last season.Peeved after being dropped from the Mumbai Ranji team last season, Shaw had posted his List A record on social media at the time. “Tell me God, what more do I have to see… if 65 innings, 3399 runs at an average of 55.7 with a strike rate of 126, I’m not good enough… but I will keep my faith in you and hopefully people believe in me still… cause I will come back for sure… Om Sai Ram.”
In recent years, Shaw turned out for Northamptonshire county and did fairly well for them in the Metro Bank One-Day tournament.After Mumbai won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, beating Madhya Pradesh in Bengaluru last year, Mumbai captain Shreyas Iyer had made a pertinent comment on Shaw.“We can’t babysit anyone, right? He has played so much cricket. Everyone has given him inputs. At the end of the day, it’s his job to figure out things for himself. And he has also done it in the past. It’s not that he hasn’t. He has to focus. He has to sit back, put a thinking cap on. He will get the answer by himself. No one can force him to do anything,” Shreyas had said.Shaw suffered another big setback in his career when he didn’t find any buyers in the IPL 2024 auction in October last year in Jeddah.
