Selectors have given me a B-grade team, says unhappy Sachin

Tendulkar, whose captaincy seemed in danger, was quoted as saying, “They have saddled me with a B-grade team. I have decided to speak the truth. For how long can one keep on lying? Lies do not serve anyone’s interest. I will allow no one to use me.” The skipper added, “I can’t say that I have been given the best team to lead, by the selectors.”

“I am very unhappy. The Indian captain is powerless. Earlier, only performance mattered. Now extraneous factors seem to have become important in selection,” he went on to say, in what was clearly an attack on the selectors, who seemed to have ridden rough-shod over his needs and requests.Tendulkar made the comments over the phone from Mumbai to the paper before leaving for London to attend the captains’ meeting, called by the International Cricket Council.

Sambaran Banerjee, the selector from East Zone, and one who is believed to have played the key role in the choice of Saba Karim as the wicketkeeper ahead of Nayan Mongia and the inclusion of Debashish Mohanty as the third seamer, expressed surprised at Tendulkar’s outburst. When contacted by The Indian Express over the telephone, Sambaran said, “We (the selectors and the captain) all shook hands and left the meeting (in Bangalore) in a cheerful mood. There were no signs of rancor. Of course there was debate about many individuals but, overall, there was consensus.”

He went on to add, “When we wished him all the best, Sachin said, `We will win the Asia Cup’.” Of course, there is no way of knowing whether Sachin said that sarcastically or seriously. But all reports emanating out of Bangalore at the end of the selection committee’s meeting suggested that he was far from happy and wore a glum look.

Not only that, Ramakant Desai, the chairman of the selection committee, when quizzed on whether Tendulkar wanted any particular players in the side, had very categorically said, “Just one.” Tendulkar is believed to have asked for Vinod Kambli ahead of Mohammed Azharuddin and Mongia instead of Karim.Today, when contacted by an agency, Desai, said, “Till I read the interview I cannot be sure if he made those comments. But I can say that he was not totally happy at the selection.”

On his own captaincy hanging by a slender thread in the face of some selectors debating whether or not he ought to retained as the skipper, Tendulkar is quoted by the Bengali newspaper as saying, “Unlike some others, I am not hankering after the captaincy. Let them take it away.”He also lamented, “Why can’t the skipper get a team of his choice? After all, the captain is blamed when the team loses.”