Hyderabad: Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has gone all guns blazing against the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and has schooled them over the special treatment towards Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
The duo of Rohit and Kohli had a poor outing in the recently concluded Chennai Test against Bangladesh. However, the team managed to secure triumph thanks to brilliant performances from R Ashwin, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah. The Indian captain managed to muster only 11 runs in the match while the star middle-order batter Kohli amassed 23 runs across the two innings.
Both of them were exempted from playing in the Duleep Trophy and Manjarekar has hit out at the bias towards the duo by the BCCI. He has stated that them not playing in the tournament hurt Indian cricket.
"I'm not worried, but I'm sure somebody made a note of the fact that they would have been better off had they played some red-ball cricket. There was the option of picking them in the Duleep Trophy," Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.
"So one has to be careful about treating certain players differently and do what's best for Indian cricket and for the player. Virat and Rohit not playing (Duleep Trophy) was not good for Indian cricket, nor was it good for the two players. Had they played the Duleep Trophy and had some time in the red-ball cricket, things would have been different," the veteran added.
Many former cricketers have raised concerns over the star Indian cricketers not playing in the domestic circuit. The discussion has been at the fore time and again and the recent remarks from the former Indian cricketer has triggered the talk around the topic once more.
