Consistent performance important: Vengsarkar
Consistent performance and merit would be key factors for the selection of Indian squad for the forthcoming tour of South Africa and the World Cup, Chairman of BCCI’s national selection committee Dilip Vengsarkar said on Friday.
“Not just performance in this tournament, but consistent performance and merit will be the only criterion for the selection of the Indian team for the forthcoming South Africa tour during which the team will play five one-day internationals”, Vengsarkar, popularly known as ‘colonel’ said on the sidelines of ongoing four-day Duleep Trophy match at Usharaje ground.
After the South African tour, the team will also play five one-day matches each with Sri Lanka and West Indies.
“The team will be announced on October 30 after the selectors watch the current matches being played in the Duleep trophy and also India-Australia match at Mohali,” Vengsarkar said.
“Everybody has to create his position in the team. It depends how one fits the bill”, he said. “It depends on the composition of the team. We keep trying people all the time.
Nobody is indispensible”, he said, emhasising the importance of consistent performance for a place in the team. DEL “All the selectors are watching domestic cricket. Some of them are watching the match in Gwalior while Sanjay Jagdale and me are here”, Vengsarkar said.
On whether former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly is performing well enough to be in the Indian team, Vengsarkar said: “It is for everybody to see, why you are asking me? Everybody has a chance to come back into the team”.
Vengsarkar refused to comment on the doping controversy that rocked the Pakistan Cricket Board, involving pacers Shoaib Akthar and Mohammad Asif.
When asked whether doping tests should be made mandatory for all the matches, he said it was purely an administrative matter and he could not comment on it.
On the performance of the Indian team in the ongoing Champions Trophy, he said: “It is important for a team to begin with a victory in the first match itself and that too against a team like England. It is a good beginning and will give an advantage to the team for other matches”.
He said the volume of international matches being played now a days was affecting the quality of domestic cricket.
“The standard (of domestic cricket) is not the same as it was earlier. Duleep Trophy is an important tournament, but players these days have hardly any time to play in it due to the busy ICC calender”.
“All the Test players must play in this tournament so that others can learn from them”, he said.
