Former India batsman Dilip Vengsarkar questioned whether BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is "wearing too many hats" in Indian cricket after his statements on the behalf of chief selector Sunil Joshi and prior to that, IPL chairman Brijesh Patel.
At a time when Joshi hasn't made any public comment regarding Rohit Sharma's injury, Ganguly had said the Indian opener must approach his hamstring tear carefully and should tread caution before taking part in the IPL 2020 playoffs for Mumbai Indians (MI).
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Ganguly made that statement wanting Rohit to make sure he doesn't aggravate the injury and risk not being reincluded in the Indian squad to tour Australia. Since that day, however, the MI skipper has played two matches for his IPL franchise.
Before that, Vengsarkar pointed out, Ganguly was heard speaking over the dates and venues of the IPL 2020 when they weren't even publicly announced by the league chairman, Patel.
"It’s quite astonishing to see the Ganguly wearing so many hats as he speaks on behalf of the supposedly appointed chairman of selectors, Sunil Joshi, as why ‘X’ was dropped and ‘Y’ was not selected and why ‘Z’ was not considered, besides how somebody is still not fit," Vengsarkar was quoted as saying by Times of India.
“When the IPL dates and venues were being discussed and organized, he was speaking on behalf of the IPL chairman. Sadly, time and again he’s sticking his neck out on behalf of those who are capable of taking decisions and explaining them on their own. Is he undermining their credentials? Or does he feel he knows more than the others?"
"I always believed the game should be run by former cricketers and was expecting a lot from Ganguly. However, whatever I have seen so far is beginning to change my mind," he added.
Coming back to the scrutiny over Rohit's injury, Vengsarkar feels the blame for the confusion in the matter goes to the BCCI medical team.
"Rohit surprisingly sees himself being dropped from the Indian team for the tour because the BCCI physio has ruled him out due to hamstring injury," he said. "Now, the question is: How did the MI physio declare Rohit fit to play in the IPL? Why is there a discrepancy in the reports of two physios?"
The 64-year-old, who played 116 Tests and 129 ODIs for India, also believes board officials are influencing the calls taken by the selectors in Ganguly's regime.
"I really don’t know who calls the shots while selecting the squad," he said. "Is it the BCCI officials or the selectors? If Rohit joins the team and Virat Kohli is not available for the last two Tests, Ajinkya Rahane, the already appointed vice-captain for the longer format, will have to lead the side and not Rohit. I wonder what Ganguly has to say about these issues."
