Will Vengsarkar put on the pads in South Africa?

By John Cheeran
Reaction to Indian team's massive loss in Durban has been incredible.
Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) President and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has asked chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar to go to South Africa and convey the sentiments of the nation in the wake of the Durban drubbing.
The decision to fly out the selector was taken by Pawar who talked to Vengsarkar on Friday morning and asked him to leave "immediately or as early as possible".
"I had a detailed discussion with the Chairman of Selection Committee. I requested him to go to South Africa immediately or as early as possible. Discuss with the coach, captain and players and communicate the feelings of the countrymen," Pawar has said.
Vengsarkar is likely to leave for South Africa only on November 30 after picking the Test squad for the tour.
By that time India would have played more one-dayers against South Africa. India's next match is on Sunday.
There is nothing wrong in chief selector becoming part of the team management.
The BCCI used to send one of the national selectors to travel with the team while on tour.
So Vengsarkar going to South Africa is an ok move.
But I doubt whether sending Vengsarkar to South Africa is the sensible course of action.
I hate to see role reversals.
What is required in cricket is that each one should fulfill his own role. A selector should make the right choices and a batsman should play the right shots.
Vengsarkar's job is to ensure that captain Rahul Dravid has the right men available to pick for each game depending on variables such as opposition, pitch and weather.
By leaving out VVS Laxman and Robin Uthappa out of the one-day squad to South Africa Vengsarkar has frittered away any shred of moral authority to dictate terms to Dravid.
VVS Laxman is one batsman who would have relished the bouncy conditions in South Africa.
It is highly amusing to read in reports from Mumbai that Vengsarkar has criticised Indian players' approach to batting.
And now I could not help recalling what skipper Vengsarkar was doing during Indian team's disastrous tour to the West Indies in 1989.
Indian batting had crumbled faced with some hostile bowling. Vengsarkar could do neither inspire his team mates nor himself against quality bowling. In four Tests Vengsarkar could score only 110 runs with an average of 18.33 while facing up to Malcolm Marshall, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Ian Bishop.
India had lost all five one-day matches to West Indies on that tour. Of the four Tests played on the tour, India lost the last three.
Vengsarkar knows the taste of defeats much better than Rahul Dravid.
Colonel in fact lost all control and levelled outrageous allegations against his team mates in an interview to Sportsworld magazine's cricket writer Mudar Patherya. Vengsarkar, in a fit of frustration, accused that his batsmen were running away from fast bowling.
Playing fast bowling is no joke.
Will Vengsarkar put on the pads in South Africa?
This is the time to make sensible corrective measures than indulge in some populist measure such as conveying the nation's distress to the players.
If I had been in Pawar's shoes, I would have told Vengsarkar to stay put in Mumbai and put VVS Laxman on the next flight to South Africa to join Dravid.
And look around for some 'non-extant talent' on the domestic circuit.