The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Focus on performance: Raju

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Thursday, Sep 28, 2006
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Focus on performance: Raju

Principal Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Former Test left-arm spinner S.L. Venkatapathy Raju, who was appointed as National selector from the South Zone on Wednesday, feels the new assignment should be another big challenge in his career.

Speaking to The Hindu, the 37-year-old Raju said that he should not face any difficulty since he has played alongside Dilip Vengsarkar (the new Chairman of the selection panel). "Apparently, the focus will be on performances. Personally, I feel that we should give lot of importance to domestic competitions and not just to camps," he said.

No bias

"There is no question of going into a meeting with a prejudiced opinion on any cricketer in contention. Being a Test cricketer I know what it means if a genuine case is ignored. I can assure that there is no question of any bias in my job," he added.

Raju said that essentially the camps and the domestic competition should complement each other and it should not be only one way or the other. "I would love to see all the Indian stars compete in domestic matches for there is no better platform for an even out-of-form cricketer to regain his touch than by playing in them. No amount of training will suffice to this," he explained.

The Hyderabad spinner, who played in 28 Tests taking 93 wickets and 53 one-dayers claiming 63 wickets, confessed that the panel has a tough task on hand as the 2007 World Cup is round the corner. "The expectations from the millions of fans will be very high. The whole effort should be to see that India regains the prestigious Cup," he asserted.

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