New Delhi: The breakdown in communication between national selectors, led by chairman Chetan Sharma, and the team management comprising skipper Virat Kohli over Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran’s contentious selection, is not the first such instance.
And it is certainly not going to be the last in Indian cricket which is replete with incidents when alpha male captains have locked horns with the wise men of “authoritarian reputation”.
It’s not a bad time to revisit a few selection conundrums that had gained legendary status over the years.
In the late 1960s till early 70s, Bengal had a wicketkeeper of Parsi origin named Rusi Jeejebhoy, a handsome man born and brought up in Kolkata. He played 46 first-class games and ended with a “horrifying” batting average of 10.46.
Even if one considers that batting wasn’t a primary skill for keepers back then, Farokh Engineer was in a different league.
There was a slot for the third wicketkeeper for the historic 1971 tour of West Indies and there was a Duleep Trophy match where East was led by stylish Bihar batsman Ramesh Saxena and Daljit Singh (famous for being BCCI chief curator in later years) was supposed to keep. They were playing a Duleep Trophy game at the Brabourne Stadium sometime in 1970.
“The chairman of selection committee, late Vijay Merchant (an icon of Parsee community) just before the toss summoned Ramesh bhai, a nice gentleman.
—PTI

Press Trust of India