‘Dilip fought to pick me as 17th player’ Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar; (right) Dilip Vengsarkar during the book launch at MCA-BKC Club on Wednesday. Pics/Shadab Khan

Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar has credited ex-India captain Dilip Vengsarkar for fighting with the selectors to pick him in India's squad for the 1988-89 West Indies tour.

At the launch of the book A Legend with Difference, written by Vengsarkar's King George High School teammate Sanjay Satam, at the MCA-BKC academy on Wednesday, Manjrekar, who was India's top-scorer in that series with 200 runs, revealed that he was the squad's 17th player.

"My first selection for India was when he [Vengsarkar] was the captain on the 1989 tour of West Indies. We were in Hyderabad and the selection meeting went on for two hours and we were all in our rooms waiting for the good news as we were all on the fringe of playing for India. And I remember Dilip came in and said: ‘There's too much tension and stress in the selection meeting'. The greatest stress for him was to get me in the team. He got a lot of resistance from the selectors, saying that I [Manjrekar] was not ready don't deserve to be here, but Dilip put his foot down and kept fighting, and I was the 17th member picked on that tour of the West Indies," said Manjrekar, who went on to score an impressive 108 in the second Test at Bridgetown in April 1989, facing up to legendary pacers like Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Ian Bishop and Courtney Walsh.

Manjrekar, 60, also recalled how he, Vengsarkar and a young Sachin Tendulkar had fun despite their big age difference. He said: "Despite the age gap and the stature gap as well, we were buddies. And I find it remarkable on that tour of New Zealand, I think 1990, when three generations of players, Dilip, myself, I think there was a [age] difference of about seven-eight years, and Sachin Tendulkar another six-seven years, the three of us hung around together. We were always there together and having fun. Dilip was the captain on one particular tour, but would hang with us and it was amazing that a guy who is already 100 Test matches old, found time and had the humility to be with people like us."

Meanwhile, Vengsarkar, a veteran of 116 Tests, who is also a former national chief selector, was asked if the emphasis on domestic cricket should be stronger. "Yes, it's very important, because all those players playing domestic cricket have that dream of playing for the country. So, if they do well, then they should be picked. I believe form and fitness are very important. If you're in form and if you're fit, then you should be picked at that point of time, na pehle na baad mein [neither before nor after]. And after a year or so, a player might lose interest, or he might lose his form and fitness. Picking them at that time would be stupidity," Vengsarkar said.