‘Earning Crores shouldn’t be the only achievement’- Dilip Vengsarkar slams Indian Cricket team management

Former Indian cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar has slammed the Indian Cricket Board and its management for not grooming any young player to take up the captaincy role in the future. He claimed that for the past 6-7 years, there have been selectors who don’t have any knowledge or vision about cricket.

It noted that India have played a lot of cricket in 2021 and 2022, which resulted in most of the main players of the team being given rest. The selectors sent different teams on various tours like Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and West Indies, where the veteran batter Shikhar Dhawan was given the charge of captaincy. Vengsarkar believes that the selectors missed a trick by not trying any young player as the skipper.

The former cricketer also slammed the Indian Cricket Board for prioritizing IPL. He said that the Board has earned a huge amount of money by selling IPL media rights, but hasn’t been able to form a commendable bench strength. Currently, many big Indian players have been out of action due to injuries.

‘You haven’t groomed anybody’ – Vengsarkar

Players like Jasprit Bumrah and Shreyas Iyer have been out of action due to back problems. Bumrah hasn’t played cricket since September 2022 and underwent surgery a couple of months ago. While Iyer sustained an injury during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that made him ruled out of the entire season of IPL 2023. Wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant met with a major car accident in December 2022 and is currently in recovery mode. While the former vice-captain KL Rahul sustained a hamstring injury during IPL 2023 and was ruled out of mid-season.

“The unfortunate part is that the selectors I have seen over the last six-seven years neither have the vision, deep knowledge about the game or cricketing sense. They made Shikhar Dhawan India captain (when tours overlapped and main players were unavailable); it is where you can groom the future captain,” Vengsarkar told Hindustan Times.

“You haven’t groomed anybody. You just play as it comes. You talk about the richest cricket board in the world, where is the bench strength? Just having IPL, earning crores of rupees in media rights, it should not be the only achievement,” he further added.