The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Vengsarkar asks BCCI to appoint bowling coach

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Vengsarkar asks BCCI to appoint bowling coach

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The Chairman of the selection committee, Dilip Vengsarkar, on Friday asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to consider appointing a bowling coach for Team India.

"I think the Indian team needs a bowling coach. I have asked the board to consider the proposal. Now it is up to the board to act on this,'' he told newspersons at the Eden Gardens. The chief selector is in town to watch the Ranji Trophy Elite group B league match between Bengal and Mumbai.

When told that Ian Frazer doubles up as the bowling coach, the former India captain said Frazer was a biomechanist and performed the duties of an assistant coach.

Speaking on the ODI debacle of the Indian team in South Africa, Vengsarkar defended coach Greg Chappell and blamed the poor performance of the team.

"The coach cannot go out and play for the team. It is for the boys to perform. A coach can only guide the team,'' he said.

Speaking on Sourav Ganguly's recall to the Test side, the chairman said, "Ganguly is brought back considering his experience of playing on the South African pitches. He has done well in the past and we hope he will come good this time too,'' he said. He said a good showing by the left-hander would augur well considering that India would be playing two ODI series at home followed by the World Cup in the West Indies.

"I cannot talk about the future. But I can certainly say that form and fitness will be the two factors that will govern the team selection. Ganguly has to get runs to prove that in the upcoming Test series,'' he said.

Form and fitness

Vengsarkar felt his committee would give enough weightage to form and fitness before selecting a side. "Fitness alone will not be the norm; form will have to be taken into consideration,'' he said.

The chairman also defended his committee's decision to strip Virender Sehwag of the vice-captaincy. "By taking away the vice-captaincy from Sehwag, we only tried to reduce the pressure on him. We want him to concentrate only on his batting. There is no other intent in the move,'' he assured.

When asked on the move to introduce performance-based incentives for the players, Vengsarkar said he had been advocating this for some time.

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