Veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s latest book "Democracy XI" has brought out another sensational incident involving Indian men's cricket, this time on the current skipper Virat Kohli and former BCCI President and ICC Chairman N Srinivasan.
According to the book's revelation, Srinivasan, who was the head of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association and BCCI treasurer in 2008, was 'livid' with the then BCCI selection committee head and former Indian batsman Dilip Vengsarkar for choosing Virat Kohli over Subramaniam Badrinath to the national side.
“When N. Srinivasan, then board treasurer and controller of Tamil Nadu cricket, found out I had dropped Badrinath for Virat, he was livid and went and complained to the board president Sharad Pawar. The next day I was removed as chairman of selectors but fortunately they couldn’t change my decision to pick Virat,” Vengsarkar was quoted as saying.
It can be recalled that Virat was picked in the MS Dhoni-led Indian ODI side during 2008, when the regular opener Virender Sehwag got injured in Sri Lanka tour. In his debut match at Dambulla, the Delhi dasher, still fresh from his Under-19 World Cup triumph in Malaysia months before, could only manage 12 runs in 22 balls. He ended as the fourth highest run-getter in the five-match series, with 159 runs at an average of 31.80. His highest was 54 in the fourth ODI at Colombo's R Premadasa Stadium, which India won by 46 runs.
“We were being fed stories of how Virat was binge-drinking in the 2009 IPL in South Africa and was more interested in his hairstyle and tattoos than his cricket,” Times Now quoted a selector saying in the book.
The Chennai right-handed Badrinath, was part of the Chennai Super Kings squad in IPL for five seasons starting from 2008. He has also captained Tamil Nadu and Vidarbha in first-class cricket. Badrinath is well known for half-century knock against South Africa in his debut Test at Nagpur. He has played seven ODIs for India, scoring 79 runs in total. He managed to score 43 runs against West Indies in the only T20I match that he played.
The book had also revealed MS Dhoni's testimony before the IPL betting probe panel on how Srinivasan had saved his captaincy in 2012.