India’s prolific run getter of yesteryears Virendra Sehwag has revealed that he learned about his dropping from India’s Test side in 2013 through newspapers rather than team officials. This is a very sad aspect of Indian cricket as we do not know how to part with send off to a senior cricketer. The man with two triple hundreds and a near 300 hundred could not be given a splendid farewell and allow an outstanding cricketer a peaceful retired life. Explosive opener Sehwag – who retired from international duty earlier this year – went a long way to shaping the modern game in a Test career spanning 12 years, amassing 8,586 runs, leaving him fifth in India’s all-time scoring charts. However, after averaging just nine in the first two Tests against Australia in 2013, Sehwag was axed for the remainder of the series – something he claims was done without notice from the management. All the International player has had a bad patch and that does not mean they should be dropped straightaway. Form is temporary and the class is permanent. The way Sehwag massacred bowlers all round the world really revealed that he was a class apart and deserved few more chances before pressing his retirement. Selectors made a cardinal mistake and for that lapse they could not find such a fine and aggressive opener even after two years of his last appearance. This made us to call the selectors a bunch of jokers or a pack of jokers. Sehwag suffered at the hands of selectors. There is no doubt about it.
by Jayanthy S. Maniam
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
