Roy comes out in support of 'tainted' players

Pankaj Roy, the former Indian opener and selector feels that it has been a wrong policy to drop the likes of Mohammed Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Nayan Mongia and Nikhil Chopra from the Indian team. During the course of a television interview, Roy clearly stated that that atleast three of the four should have been in the team. "Look, charges of match-fixing against them have not been proved. People are talking about unaccounted wealth accumulated by them. In India, there are a vast number of people with unaccounted property and money. Are everybody punished" he asked.

Roy went on to add, "Even though the selectors have been stating that they will be considered in the future, I feel that they are being branded as guilty. If they are guilty, their achievements should be erased from the books and they should be banned for life. But unless you have sufficient proof against them, you should not take any disciplinary measures against them."

He added cricketers, these days earn money through various sources. Their match fees have gone up and then there are endorsements, ad films, appearance money plus their jobs. So it is quite natural that they will be rich. So why, punish them if they have wealth that cannot be accounted for. Roy quipped "If a player takes a million rupees for an ad film, it is quite natural that they will not take the entire amount in white money. Very few people in our country do that. Do filmstars always show their signing amounts?" he asked.

Talking on modern day players, Roy made it very clear that even though, he thought of Sachin Tendulkar as a modern day genius, he was not ready to rate him the best Indian batsmen that he has seen. When asked, to list the top five Indian batsman that he has seen, Roy said, "Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and GR Vishwanath.

Roy said Vijay merchant was the ultimate in defense and offence. "His compactness has not been matched by any other batsman till date," he added. Similarly, he also feels that it is not possible for him to call Shane Warne the best ever leg spinner. "People, who are making such a statement, have not seen Subhash Gupte. He had two googlies in his armory. The first was quite apparent to the batsman, the second was the killer. Warne does not have a googly. Subhash Gupte would possibly accounted for more victims if he had played the same number of Tests that Warne has done."

Roy also stated that he had basically two regrets in life. The first is not being able to get a double hundred in Test cricket and the second at not being able to become the Chairman of the selection committee. Roy still shares the World Record for the highest opening partnership (413 versus New Zealand at the Corporation Stadium in 1954) with Vinoo Mankad. He blames, Polly Umrigar, for not being able to get the double hundred. "I had an opportunity of getting 200 during that World Record stand.

However, Polly Umrigar instructed me to hit out. I did so thinking that he would declare. I got out playing a rash shot and was surprised to see that declaration was not being implemented. I would have certainly got my double hundred if I had played my normal game."

He blamed the cricket administrators of the East for him not being able to become the Chairman of the selection committee. "During my tenure as the selector from the East Zone, there was no continuity. The policy was to send me to the Committee for a year and then in the following year, the job used to be given to the late Dattu Phadkar. As a result both of us lost out on seniority. I feel that I have missed out on this achievement. There have been a number of cricketers who have become the Chairman of the Selection Committee even though, they have played fewer Test matches than I have."