New Delhi: Former Indian captain Dilip Vengsarkar alluded to the fact that his tenure as the chief selector of BCCI’s selection committee came to an end because he backed Virat Kohli over Tamil Nadu’s Subramanium Badrinath, which didn’t go well with the then treasurer of the board, N Srinivasan.
Speaking to journalists at an event on Monday, the former right-handed batsman said that he insisted that Kohli, who had won the U-19 World Cup that year, be selected for the tour of Sri Lanka that year, ahead of Badrinath. He further revealed that the then captain and coach MS Dhoni and Gary Kirsten weren’t convinced with this idea.
“I felt this was an ideal situation to include Kohli in the squad. Although the other four selectors agreed with my decision, Gary Kirsten and MS Dhoni were reluctant as they had not seen much of Kohli. I told them that I have seen him and we have to include him in the team,” he said.
“I knew that they were keen on keeping S Badrinath in the team because he was a Chennai Super Kings player. If Kohli would have come in, Badrinath would have been dropped. N Srinivasan was the BCCI treasurer at that time. He was upset that Badrinath was dropped because he was their player.” added Vengsarkar.
A veteran of 116 Tests and 129 ODIs, the former Mumbai batsman took over as the chief selector in 2006 from Kiran More and he was succeeded by former teammate Kris Srikkanth in less than two years time.
Vengsarkar further hinted at the fact that it was because of Srinivasan s influence that he lost his job. Badrinath made his ODI debut in the second ODI and played three games with scores of 27*, 6 and 6. Kohli made his debut in the first match and played all the five matches with scores of 12, 37, 25, 54 and 31.
Vengsarkar also said, “He [Srinivasan] asked me on what basis Badrinath was axed, and I explained that I had been on the Emerging Players tour to Australia where I saw Virat, who is an exceptional player and that is why he is in the team. He argued that Badrinath has scored over 800 runs for Tamil Nadu. I told him that he will get his chance. He then asked, ‘When will he get his chance? He is already 29 now’. I told him he will get his chance but I can’t tell you when. The very next day, he (Srinivasan) took (Kris) Srikkanth, who later succeeded Vengasarkar as chief selector, to Sharad Pawar, who was the (BCCI) president then and that was the end of my selection tenure.”