Dubai: Team India is scheduled to play abroad in South Africa, England and Australia soon. Former Indian captain and elegant batsman Dilip Vengsarkar is one of the few batsmen who stamped his class on wickets with movement and bounce and scored heavily at such venues including cracking three centuries at England’s historic Lord’s Cricket Ground. In an exclusive interview to Gulf News in Dubai, Vengsarkar spoke about the technique needed to be successful on wickets abroad and various other aspects of the game.
Q How much of a challenge will India tours to South Africa, England and Australia be in the coming year?
A These three are strong teams and India is playing against them abroad after a long time. The recent Tests and ODIs India played were in India and they are playing extremely well under Virat Kohli. The challenge now is to win abroad in those countries and retain the No 1 ranking. I am sure they will be under pressure to do it. As they are playing in South Africa after a long time, they will have to get acclimatised to the conditions and the bounce in the wicket there. Unfortunately they aren’t playing any warm-up games before the Test series. Having only two days practice before a Test match might not help. So the success of Indian team and the tour will depend on how quickly they acclimatise to the bounce. The first Test match is always very important and South Africa has got some good fast bowlers and batsmen too. So it will be a good challenging series for the Indian team.
How did you as a player handle the bounce and movement on wickets abroad and performed so well, especially in England?
Those days we had enough time and played matches before a Test match to get acclimatised and that made a lot of difference and we knew what to expect. I believe that, however great a player you are, you need some time to get acclimatised. So how quickly you adapt is very important.
Playing the moving balls is a weakness for many batsmen but you played on wickets like at the Lord’s for three centuries. What was your approach?
Everybody has got skills, be it club, office level or state level cricketer. How you adapt to the conditions is very important. No one is perfect and nobody is technically totally correct to be called a perfect technician. Everybody will have certain weaknesses. At the end of the day, what matters is how many runs you have scored. How you score and how you adapt is up to you. That was my mindset.
How did you handle criticism as Kohli is facing currently despite his success with the detractors saying he has a weakness on wickets in England?
You must know which strokes to play on what type of wicket and which type of ground. It is basically smart cricket. Kohli is an all-round player. He has scored hundreds in Australia except that he failed in England and I am sure he must be very keen make amends there. I think he is the best batsman in the world and leads the team from the front. He is in fantastic form but how he acclimatises to the conditions is vital.
There is now a debate on whether Kohli, Steve Smith or Joe Root is the best batsmen in world today? Who is your pick?
They are all great players and I feel it is not right to compare them but, if you ask me who will you want to watch playing, I will watch Kohli because he is so elegant and a brilliant cracker of the ball. Smith is an effective player but not an elegant player. Root is a good player and has all the abilities of a cricketer but I will go miles to watch Kohli bat.
What are the traits in Kohli that have impressed you the most?
Kohli is an intelligent cricketer and knows how to handle pressure. I feel that is the hallmark of a great batsman. If he is challenged, he will come on top and he is so focused and extremely fit. Throw him a challenge and he will accept it because he takes pride in his performance and his team as well. He has set certain standards for his batting and he would like to live up to those standards.
Is it confidence that fetched you those three centuries at Lord’s despite the bowlers who could move the ball around so brilliantly?
There are some bowlers who excel in those conditions in England, like Mike Hendrick, Ian Botham, Bob Willis, Graham Dilley and John Lever, who were brilliant in those conditions. They knew what length and line to bowl there and so one had to handle them confidently.
Do you think bowlers around the world are a bit easier to face these days?
You all may feel bowlers are not so strong because the quality of bats has improved a lot. Today, you just connect the ball, and it goes into the stands. For my first Test match, I used an Indian bat and it was a big effort to hit the ball into the stands. Frankly it is not right to compare bowlers of different eras. The wickets around the world have also gone slow. We see South Africa, Australia and English wicket are not the demons like those days. During India’s tour those days, the first Test against Australia used to be on Brisbane’s bouncy wicket and second would be at Perth, which was the fastest and equally bouncy. When you used to go to West Indies, the first Test used to be in Barbados and they had four to five fast bowlers those time to use it well. You have to play them. If you have fear in you to play, you should not play cricket at all. It was a challenge to adapt to the bounce and pace of those fast bowlers.
Don’t you think it is right to confine Indian players to play only in the Indian Premier League and not release them to play in other leagues around the world?
If players are released, they will not be available to play first class cricket. They all will be like Chris Gayle and play only T20 matches around the world. For the game to survive, you need solid Test match cricket. Since these T20 leagues give lot of money, everyone will go to play in these leagues. If your first class cricket is not strong, the overall standard will be hit. India has also got a tight schedule in the Future Tour Programme. This is why BCCI does not allow state players to play in other state’s league like Goa Premier League and Karnataka Premier League. If they are allowed, players won’t play club or even their office matches. Mumbai cricket was strong because Test players used to play club cricket and when they play in it others will also improve. There are 100 official tournaments now in Mumbai.
But domestic cricketers too would want to earn good money, isn’t it?
Yes, for that I would suggest first class cricketers must be paid more so they remain in the game. Mumbai is struggling now because lot of good cricketers who think they don’t have a chance to play for Mumbai stop playing cricket and take up other jobs to earn a good living. If there is good money, those who are not playing Test match will also come and play first class cricket.
How do you find the growth of women’s cricket?
I am so happy that women’s cricket has improved so much. The recent world cup performance was excellent. It’s good BCCI is organising matches and tours for them. I am coaching a few girls at my cricket academy and, in a recent under-12 tournament organised by my academy, the player of the tournament was an 11-year-old girl named Sanika Chalke. She is a left hand batswoman and leg spinner and we allow girls to play in boys tournament at under-13 and under-14 levels.
Nowadays, it is not metropolitan cities alone that win Ranji Trophy matches, with Vidarbha too reaching the tournament final...
BCCI gives grants to all states and many have built good infrastructure unlike in the past when players had to come to metropolitan cities for exposure. Talents are spread all over India now. Vidarbha reaching the final has a lot to do with their coach Chandrakant Pandit’s guidance. Pandit was sacked by Mumbai as their coach despite Mumbai, in the last two years, reaching the Ranji Trophy final, winning it once and losing another time. Pandit moulded Vidarbha very well. He was also coach of the Kerala team, which has also reached the knockout stage. It is nice that cricket is spreading in states like Kerala, which was essentially a football state.
