An Open Letter to Dilip Vengsarkar

Dear Mr. Vengsarkar,

We saw you become the Chairman of Selectors for BCCI, taking over the position from one Mr. Kiran More, your former team mate, and wicket keeper when you captained your Team India with honors. Or probably you did, but yet lost 5 of the 10 you skippered in. Happens to the best of us. We rejoiced. No, not at your captaincy, at you getting selected as the Chief. Probably because one thought BCCI needed your hard talking, straight forward nature, more than the youngsters at the Elf-Academy.

Probably one was too relieved to see the back of Kiran More. For all the good that More had delivered as a gutsy, diminutive, never-say-die wicketkeeper, seemed to have got washed away when he transpired to conspire with a foreigner to throw the best cricket captain India had ever seen, away, into wilderness, and then take the credit for his return to form. But why am I telling you this, this is not about Kiran More, it is about you.

So, we all thought that you would be a messiah who would save all of India, with some tough decisions on selections, not care too much about reputations, and most importantly, help the Indian win some good matches. What we certainly did not bargain for was a confused positioning on selection policies within a short span of time. But it augurs well, more than anything, confuses the opponents about the next move, especially at the macro-level of things.

You began by exhorting us to look at the virtually non-existing bench strength for the Indian Team, after all, Team India is not Team Infosys where every second software professional you meet would be a guy warming the bench, ready to replace the next best guy. How could you replace the seniors in the Team? We all agreed with you, and understood your predicament. You also wanted to throw the preparations of opponents into a sense of complacency one is sure, no-one saw through that. Only I did.

But then there was another issue, we all were made to understand that the seniors in the team – Ganguly and Dravid – would have been throwing their weight about in the dressing room, not heeding to training schedules, or adhering to the fitness programs. Does not augur too well for the unity of the team, and so you ‘officially’ warned everyone using the medium of the media. Seniors should rightly not take their place in the team for granted. We agreed. Whole heartedly again, how could players of the quality of Dravid and Ganguly, who do not even have a real estate property in Mumbai, forget being from Mumbai, afford to do this?

Then – and I am guessing here – probably on your recommendation bought a house or two, in Mumbai, and out came your statement, about seniors not having to worry about their place in the side. As if to prove your point, you even dropped one senior, Dravid, and selected another senior-of-sorts-who-does-not-act-one, Virendar Sehwag back into the team, and made an insightful revelation, “Sehwag has been among the runs in recent times.” True, Sehwag, in the recent times, has had two fifties to boot in the Challenger Trophy, a fifty in the twenty20 Cup, and many more in the galli-cricket tournaments that he featured in, in the last few months. Or so they say. But what counts is that he scored runs, and we all remember how Dravid had managed to convince you about Sehwag’s potential before the World Cup. You finally agreed. This shows that your respect for individuals, especially ex-captains who don’t see eyeball to eyeball with you. You got no ego hassles, which augurs really well for the country.

One keeps comparing your job with Kiran More’s, he at least had the support of Greg Chappell to help take India where they were; you have done it all alone. Even the managers appointed haven’t been quite on your side, but you have exhibited that same mental toughness and skin ‘thickness’ that you displayed in your playing days. Time and tide have barely changed your objectives, the confused positioning notwithstanding.

All in all, it has been a very exciting tenure for you I am sure, as it has been for all of us. One is not too sure about the extension of your tenure when it comes for review in September 2008, but one would really hope and pray that you continue, it makes for an interesting viewing, and the suspense associated with it may give that opportunity to Lalit Modi, the CMO, to sell Indian Cricket as a thriller, to say, Balaji Telefilms or ummm…maybe Warner Brothers? Remember to ask for that royalty you so rightly deserve.

Thanks and Warmest Regards,
A Vengsarkar Fan.