Wriddhiman Saha’s exclusion from India’s latest Test squad for the upcoming two-match series against Sri Lanka has caused a massive uproar in the Indian cricketing fraternity.
The 37-year-old had revealed his discussions with head coach Rahul Dravid and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly regarding his future, but it was communicated to Saha that he’s not seen as part of India’s future lineups.
Amid this whole fiasco, another former Indian wicket-keeper has come out as a ‘victim of injustice’ during his playing days. Syed Kirmani, who was part of India’s golden generation that won the 1983 ODI World Cup, revealed how he was unceremoniously shown the exit door, despite the fact that he had ‘no competition’ at the time.
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In an interview with Sportskeeda, Kirmani said, “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.”
The former selector went on to add how false reports regarding his struggles were published in newspapers at the time, while he also accused former secretary of Karnataka State Cricket Association of being disrespectful towards him.
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“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,” said Kirmani.
The 72-year-old, who further added, “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?”
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