'I am a victim of injustice too but nobody talks about it': Ex-India WK joins Saha debate; 'I was the saviour of team'
A former India wicketkeeper has joined the controversy surrounding Wriddhiman Saha and his ouster from the team, saying that he too was treated unfairly during his time as India's figure behind the stumps
The controversy surrounding Wriddhiman Saha – first of his ouster from the team and later the row involving a ’reputed’ journalist – has gotten people talking. Several former India cricketers – from Pragyan Ojha to Virender Sehwag to Venkatesh Prasad have weighed in on the matter and urged Saha to name the culprit.
Even BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal had his say on the matter and informed that the board will look into the matter to ensure no other player needs to go through a similar experience.
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However, against everyone’s wishes Saha has decided not to reveal the identity of the journalist as he doesn’t want the scribe’s ‘career finished’. In the midst of the Saha-journalist row, the fact that the India wicketkeeper was dropped from the Test squad and that he spoke about it at length tends to take a back seat, which is an equally important matter. He mentioned the discussion he had with head coach Rahul Dravid and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly about his future in the team which, let’s just say, didn’t quite turn the way Saha would have hoped to.
Now, former India wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani has joined the controversy surrounding Saha and his ouster from the team, saying that he too was treated unfairly during his time as India's figure behind the stumps. Kirmani, who was part of India’s historic 1983 World Cup win, has revealed that despite being India’s best wicketkeeper he was shown the exit door despite their being ‘no competition’.
"Saha has got tremendous competition around him with all the youngsters performing well in the IPL and other limited-overs matches. He's obviously very sad, but every cricketer has to go through the ups and downs, right? We don't know what the selection committee and the team management think about the player. I have also been a victim of injustice, but nobody talks about it,” Kirmani told SportsKeeda in an interview.
A former selector, Kirmani went on to reveal that there were instances where journalists would write untrue articles about him, which no one cared to cross-check. Kirmani played his last ODI and Tests for India in 1986, a point in his career where, as the 72-year-old puts out, the downward spiral began.
“I don’t know. I was at the pinnacle of my career around that time. Yet, I was dropped from both the Test and ODI teams for no fault of mine. There was no competition around me. I played 88 Tests and was the saviour of India’s ODI team on many occasions. Do you know, wrong reports were published in the newspapers suggesting that I was performing poorly? While somebody else would drop a catch in the slip cordon, they [the media] would publish my photograph and insinuate that Kirmani had dropped a catch or missed a stumping,” he said.
"I've always been a fighter. My own state [Karnataka] removed me from the team when I wanted to stage a comeback and honour my country. That's why I was forced to move to the Railways team. The then secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association [KSCA] said, 'Oh, so you're going to the Railways? Let’s see how you perform there.' Is that how you talk to a World Cup winner and someone who has always been a team man?"
