Karun Nair treated in a ‘demeaning and unfair’ manner: Former chief selector

Former selector Dilip Vengsarkar has been taken by surprise after the Indian national selectors decided to ignore Karun Nair for the upcoming two-Test series against West Indies, starting October 4. Vengsarkar felt that a batsman who scored a triple hundred against England a couple of seasons back has been treated harshly by the team management and selection panel, led by MSK Prasad.

“The way Karun has been dropped is quite baffling, to say the least. He scored a triple century in a Test against England at home not so long ago. Scoring a triple ton in any grade of cricket is an outstanding feat and not many have scored a triple ton in Test cricket,” Vengsarkar told The Times of India.

“However, since then, he has been out of the playing eleven, and even when he was in the squad, Vihari was flown in from India and was preferred to Karun for the last Test at the Oval, which I feel is not only demeaning for the batsman but most unfair. Only the wise men of Indian cricket can explain why such a treatment is being meted out to a Test triple centurion. The entire case is quite intriguing.”

Nair too spoke his heart out and told Cricbuzz in an interview that it has been a difficult phase for him as the lack of communication from the selection panel and team management has dented his confidence.

“No, we haven’t had any conversations. Nothing at all. It is difficult, but I haven’t gone forth and asked anything, but yeah, we haven’t had any conversation. It is difficult, naturally for a human being, it’s difficult to handle that situation, or to take that as a human being (to see Vihari being picked ahead of him in the playing XI). But like I said before, the team management and everyone else involved make a decision, and me as a player has to accept it. There’s nothing else I can do,” he said.

Nair also revealed that as a cricketer it is never easy to go back to domestic cricket after going through the grind and making it to the national team. “You work so hard to get to that stage (international), and I don’t think anyone would want to leave that stage and come back again to a level below. Everyone who gets to the international stage, works so hard, gets so many runs at the domestic level, at the India A level, otherwise we can’t reach the top. To think about going back again and coming in is hard, it’s never easy to go back and come back again. It takes double the effort.

“Obviously I want to be playing games. Like I said, you still want to be at that stage, you want to be experiencing those moments, you want to be a part of that... playing for your country is all that you have dreamt of all your life. To have an experience like that is a big thing. If there’s an option of going and playing games, you can do that. But I meant it in a way, you want to be in those situations and you want to be playing there as well. If there’s an opportunity where you can go and play matches, it’s obviously a good thing, you can keep scoring runs and be in touch. To play matches is better to be in touch than playing at the nets,” he said.

First Published: Oct 01, 2018 14:01 IST