Sehwag's ignorance - 'nothing short of shocking'

Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Dilip Vengsarkar, former India captains, are shocked that Virender Sehwag hadn't heard of Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad, who hold the world-record opening partnership. Pataudi in his column in DNA, the Mumbai-based daily, wrote, "...that Sehwag had never heard of Pankaj Roy [India’s first captain from Bengal] or Mankad, an all-rounder in the same league as Kapil Dev, is very disconcerting. I can only hope that it is an example of some obscure humour".

Dilip Vengsarkar is shocked. "That Sehwag doesn't know who Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad are, is nothing short of shocking. It shows the growing lack of knowledge and awareness about Indian cricketing history and tradition. We knew of them since our teens. It was told to us by our coaches. It was the Mumbai tradition."

Vengsarkar had mooted a theory paper at the National Cricket Academy which dealt with Indian and world cricketing history. "We would grade the players on the basis of what they knew. It helps inculcate a regard for history."

Pataudi also offers a similar suggestion. "If this [Sehwag's comments]is true then are we to assume that today’s cricketers are so ill-informed and uninterested in the traditions, and history of the game. If that is so, Chappell had better introduce another element into their daily regimen of practice and push-ups."

However, Ramachandra Guha, the social and cricket historian, has an alternate view. "The remark [Sehwag's] was in perfect innocence. It says a lot about the man," argues Guha, adding that the aspect has a lot to do with the geographic democratisation of cricket in India.

"Previously cricketers came from the main centres and they were schooled in this knowledge of cricketing history and cricketing deeds, mainly statistical. Dravid in Karnataka was told about Viswanath, Tendulkar about Gavaskar and Gavaskar about Vijay Merchant. It is not so much in the case of the Sehwag's and the Irfan Pathans," he says. "They play the game for its sake and nothing else."