Former cricketers believe Virender Sehwag's absence in world twenty20 through injury is a sign of money weakening the BCCI
Former cricketers believe Virender Sehwag's absence in world twenty20 through injury is a sign of money weakening the BCCI
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While Virender Sehwag's absence will be a major blow to India's chances in the World Twenty20, experts believe the shoulder injury to the opener is also a worrying sign for Indian cricket's future.
Sehwag has been ruled out for three to four weeks and in-form Murali Vijay was named as replacement. The fact that Sehwag could have picked up the injury during the Indian Premier League for the second consecutive year after he missed last year's World T20 has left a few former cricketers fuming.
"This is what happens when you play a tournament with such a hectic schedule before a World Cup," said former India all ufffd rounder Madan Lal.
While there is a school of thought that believes the BCCI must have more control over its players playing matches ahead of an important tournament, Lal, who was part of the 1983 World Cup-winning team, felt that not just the players but the BCCI needs to arrest its diminishing control over cricket.
"Once IPL teams have given so much money, they are justified in asking the players to play as many games as possible. And the BCCI is powerless to have a say as they are the ones cashing in," Lal said adding that the situation will only get worse.
"As long as the IPL is on, the BCCI is powerless to control the game or players. The franchises have a bigger say and the players don't have much choice as well. From next year, IPL will have more teams and more matches. So, you can imagine what will happen," he added.
If Lal is worried about BCCI's diminishing power, former India batsman Surinder Khanna is concerned about their attitude.
"The same thing happened last year with Sehwag and Zaheer Khan getting injured during the IPL and several others carrying niggles. And that was directly responsible for India's poor show in the World Cup. But BCCI does not seem to care or else they would have done something about it," he said.
"They seem to be looking at this as a derby. If one horse doesn't run, then get another one. In any case there are a lot of cricketers in India so picking another player is never a problem. But losing a player of Sehwag's caliber is a big blow and this is surely not the last time the Indian team has lost a big name because of BCCI's negligence," Khanna added.
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