The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Delighted with the team’s performance: Vengsarkar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 09, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Delighted with the team’s performance: Vengsarkar

Special Correspondent

‘Borde’s presence invaluable’

— FILE PHOTO

Dilip Vengsarkar.

Mumbai: “When I said there’s no exceptional talent in the country in my first press conference in Chandigarh last November, what I meant was that there’s no one to take the cricketing world by storm,” explained Dilip ‘Colonel’ Vengsarkar, chairman of India’s selection committee.

In an interview to The Hindu hours before India’s final one-dayer against England at Lord’s, Vengsarkar expressed happiness with the results achieved by Rahul Dravid’s team in Ireland and England, but also added th at the team should not be burdened by off-shore matches.

Excerpts:

Irrespective of the result at Lord’s, you would be pleased with India’s performance in Ireland and England. The Indians have looked the part in pursuit of victory.

Absolutely, I’m delighted with the team’s determined performances. It’s been a very long and tough tour. With so many matches cramped together starting with the one-dayers against Ireland and South Africa and then the county games, Test series and the seven one-dayers it was really a tough ask on the players. A lot of credit goes to the support staff and the coach.

I do not approve of the off-shore matches. It may bring in money, but I believe Indian cricket will be better off without them like playing South Africa in Ireland. Instead we should try and space out Test and one-day international series and give importance to domestic competitions and I’m sure Indian cricket will be on the road to prosperity.

The Indians have been quite steadfast after the escape in the Lord’s Test.

Full credit to the think-tank. Rahul really worked hard. Chandu Borde’s presence too was invaluable. He’s a very experienced man. He’s been in international cricket since 1958, played 55 Tests and his inputs, on the spot analysis of players and a match are invaluable. He’s been a student of the game and watches each and every ball.

Do you think Dravid, with the sheer workload he had to bear, suffered while batting in the Test series?

Maybe to an extent. But he always looked good at the crease and did not look weighed down by pressure. He played a vital role in the third Test.

It’s a question of how a player adjusts to situations and allows himself to be affected by events happening around him. Rahul was really determined.

Quite a few players — Dinesh Karthik, Piyush Chawla, Ramesh Powar, Gautam Gambhir, R.P. Singh and Robin Uthappa — have given the impression that they are ready to fill in the void that can occur anytime in

the future.

I will add a few more to the list. There’s Suresh Raina, Badrinath, Manoj Tiwary, Yomahesh, Cheteshwar Pujara and a few more India ‘A’ players like Irfan Pathan. They should be the nucleus of the future Indian teams. Rohit Sharma needs some more experience.

Would you say that the good performances from the newcomers is a reflection on India’s first class system and the development programmes in the form of under-19 and ‘A’ tours.

The National Cricket Academy (NCA) has played a crucial part in their development along with the under-19 and ‘A’ tours. I have seen all the youngsters at the NCA, interacted with them from 2001 to 2005. All the youngsters are now in the Indian team. They share the dressing room for a long time with the senior players which itself is an incentive to perform and to emulate them, get motivated and inspired. The batsmen learn a lot during partnerships with the stalwarts.

As chairman you are about to complete a year by September. You took some bold decisions, dropped senior players like Sehwag and Harbhajan. After a year are you happy with the committee’s work.

The committee is driven to pick the best team at all times. We have felt that the youngsters have to be groomed with the seniors in the team. There should not be a big void when the seniors quit. There are quite a few on the wrong side of the 30s. So our priority is to keep an eye on the youngsters. You have to spot talent, give opportunities and groom them.

With so many cricketers leaving mainstream cricket, will it be difficult to pick the Rest of India team for the Irani Cup.

There are a lot of cricketers in India and they will get their opportunities to compete at the highest level.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail