Team India will have a new permanent ODI captain as Virat Kohli was relieved of his duties by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on December 8. The Indian team will now have two captains operating in white-ball and red-ball formats. Former India cricketer and cricket administrator Dilip Vengsarkar believes that the BCCI’s decision on the grooming theory is a good problem to have.
Vengsarkar wrote in his latest column for The Indian Express, “The most important thing now is that the national selection committee has to groom someone who will take over the captaincy in the future. This is applicable not only to the captaincy but to players as well. Developing backup players is key because they keep everyone playing in the team on their toes.”
“In my tenure as the selection committee chairman, we made Anil Kumble the captain and at the same time, we groomed MS Dhoni and others. I also groomed Ishant Sharma and took him to England, knowing that he will not play there. But I knew he could prove to be more than handy in Australia later,” he added.
Vengsarakar cited the downfall of the West Indian team and warned that a void in a team can prove to be fatal in long-run.
“The selectors’ job is to groom players and to create sufficient options and bench strength so that whenever great players retire, there should be no void in the team. The situation starts getting out of hand once there is a void. Look at the West Indies. They ruled world cricket for 15 years and then went from No. 1 to the bottom-ranked team at one stage,” Vengsarkar explained.
The upcoming South Africa tour will be the first time for Rohit Sharma as the permanent in-charge of the ODI team. The Indian team will resume its ODI campaign on January 19 under Sharma as they face the Proteas in a three-match ODI series. Sharma will also serve as Kohli’s deputy in the three-match Test series against South Africa.
