Selecting the Twenty-20 squad for India for the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007 proved to be a daunting task for the board of selectors. And Vengsarkar played a key role in picking up the boys, who in turn gave the nations its very first Twenty-20 world championship trophy. In the hindsight, Vengsarkar is happy that the team shaped up that way. “When India held its nerve in the opening match and beat Pakistan in the bowl out, I was more or less certain that M.S. Dhoni’s team was capable of winning the World Cup. Winning the first match is always important, more significantly Pakistan and the rest was history,” said Vengsarkar.

He further informed the cricket news media that a discussion with three slip cordon fielders Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly during the Test series in England convinced him that Dhoni would make the best captain for this young and vibrant squad. “He’s a fine batsman and wicketkeeper, but what clinched captaincy for him was the cricketing sense the three seniors told me. He had not even led Jharkhand then and my committee made him captain”, remembered Vengsarkar.  The selectors’ apprehensiveness soon gave way to conviction as they observed a confident Dhoni assuming the full control of the team in South Africa.

The IPL frenzy will be hardly over that the 15-member Indian squad will have to rush for catching the flight for England on May 29. The first warm up match against New Zealand is scheduled for June 1. They are going to start their battle to defend their title on June 6, when they play their first match against Bangladesh. And the defending champions are under tremendous pressure. Even the coach admits that too. Kirsten had earlier told the cricket news media that the 39-day extravaganza of the IPL Season 2 will leave the Indian players mentally drained. But Vengsarkar just brushed aside this possibility, when he was attending a function to unveil the ICC World T20 Championship trophy in Mumbai.

“I don’t think there is a cause for worry. We have seven days after the finals of the IPL and sufficient time for the players to get that much-needed rest. I hope they don’t enter into the studios (for ad shoot) after coming back (from South Africa),”said Vengsarkar.

However, he criticized the IPL’s mobile phone contest that involved predicting scores and other live match details. “I agree with the Union Sports Minister M.S. Gill that IPL’s SMS-based mobile lottery asking fans to predict ball-by-ball scores for commercial gains has no place in the game,”  said India’s former captain.  He maintained that “cricket cannot stoop low; its sanctity has to be preserved.” But at the same time, he opined that the controversial mobile gaming doesn’t necessarily lead to corruption in the game.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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