Several Indian cricketers enjoy their good days while playing for the country, but there is hardly anyone who has no regrets at all. Even the great Sachin Tendulkar, who represented India for 25 years, can give you a few. There were a few who got a great farewell, then there were a few who were dropped, never knowing that they had played their last Test match. And then there was Dilip Vengsarkar.
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Known as the middle order mainstay in the Indian team, Vengsarkar played his last Test match in Australia during 1991-92 tour. The tour was a pure disaster as India failed to win a single ODI match. Coming back to Vengsarkar, the elegant right-hander reached the pinnacle of his career during the 1986 England tour where he helped India win the two-match Test series 2-0, nonetheless, his career took a downturn when he fractured his hand while playing against West Indies at Eden Gardens in the year 1988. He did recover from it, but he was never really himself. Therefore, he chose to say one final goodbye on 1992 Australia tour where he was subsequently dropped for some ODI games.
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Just any other India cricketer, even after so many years, the Mumbaikar is yet to get over it.
“If you see in the hindsight, of course I was doing well in the sense. But on the tour of Australia, I was dropped from the one-day matches. That was I was the highest scorer for India and I couldn’t find a place. I could understand if India were winning but they were losing each and every match on the tour of Australia. Coach Abbas Ali Baig was there and he asked me what we should do. I said you are asking an interested person," Vengsarkar told former India batsman WV Raman on the latter’s YouTube channel.
The former India batter’s, who also became the national selector, stated that he felt he was unlucky to have been sidelined, more so since India’s performances in ODIs back then were not up to the mark.
“I mean I can understand if you are winning all the matches and then you keep me on the sidelines. I was the highest scorer in ODIs till then. So then I thought that it’s not worth continuing because I have always believed that you should play in all formats. India were playing a lot of ODIs back then and if you are playing them all, you are part of the group," he pointed out.
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