Virat Kohli in action during a Test match (file photo)
Veteran cricket administrator Professor Ratnakar Shetty on Tuesday praised former chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar for his inclusion. Virat Kohli in the national team.
“I have never seen a better chairman in the selection committee than Dilip Vengsarkar during my tenure in BCCI,” Shetty said after former BCCI president Sharad Pawar released his book ‘On Board – My Years in BCCI’ here.
“We celebrated Virat Kohli’s 100 Tests, but I know the truth that when he came back from the ICC World Cup Under-19s, he (Vengsarkar) pushed him (Kohli) into the Emerging Players Tournament, sent him to Australia where Virat Scored a century in the final, which we won.
“He came back (and) Dileep introduced him to the Indian team and brought him into this mainstream of Indian cricket,” he recalled.
Shetty, who has worked closely with former India captain Vengsarkar, who is a veteran of 116 Tests, also highlighted the ‘Colonel” stint as chief national selector.
“Not only that, in the Greg Chappell era, in tough times in Indian cricket, some cricketers were dropped midway, many of them came back to play for India when he (Vengsarkar) joined the selection committee. Became president.
“Because, he had that power and could make such decisions.
That was Dilip Vengsarkar,” said Shetty, who is a professor of chemistry by profession.
According to Shetty, former ICC, BCCI and MCA chief Pawar had a “working habit”.
Pawar launched the book in the presence of Vengsarkar, Mumbai Cricket Association President Dr Vijay Patil and several former India and first-class cricketers including Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Diana Edulji, Nilesh Kulkarni, Chandrakant Pandit and others.
Shetty also said that former BCCI chief N Srinivasan brought the corporate structure to the board.
“… and N Srinivasan. I think very few people would know that the amount of help he helped cricketers, gave jobs, funded cricketers in difficult times and the way he ran BCCI was a corporate office. Hence the corporate structure in BCCI was brought in by N Srinivasan,” Shetty recalled,
On this occasion, both Vengsarkar and Pawar praised Shetty for his work as an administrator.
Pawar also remembered many anecdotes.
– Reported by PTI