xtratime Logo

XtraTime Web Desk: Former Selection Committee Chairman Dilip Vengsarkar purposefully overlooked a policy to include MS Dhoni into the TRDW scheme in 2002. During the time of BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya a Talent Resource Development Wing (TRDW) was formed with Vengsarkar as its chairman. So, the basic idea was to induct talented U19 cricketers from across the country. Dhoni who was already 21 years then but still got inducted into the TRDW scheme on the insistence of former Bengal captain Prakash Poddar, who had gone to watch an U-19 match in Jamshedpur as part of Vengsarkar’s TRDW team.The match was being held at a ground adjacent to the Keenan Stadium where Bihar (not Jharkhand) were playing a Ranji One Day game. A few balls flew into the playing arena outside the stadium which made Poddar curious and he went inquiring as to who was hitting it this far. The name was MS Dhoni but he had already passed the qualifying age for TRDW. But Vengsarkar, on Poddar’s insistence, decided that rules shouldn’t come in the way of a talented player. Dilip Vengsarkar remains India’s best chairman of selectors by a distance for his sheer ability to spot talent. Vengsarkar’s tenure as chairman of the national selection committee between 2006-08 is often cited as a bench-mark for all those who came after him as he backed a very raw Kohli and promoted Mahendra Singh Dhoni to captaincy.