Who let Dileep Vengsarkar IN

[coffee_rules]

Support act? I think he was a better batsman than Viswanath' date=' who had the propensity to throw it away. Not as pleasing on the eye, by far, but better, yes.[/quote'] Blasphemy. Until 1982 Vengy was in the Support role. It was only after Vishy retired he assumed a senior role. He was famous for his comic batting against pace early on. It was only after a long rope he survived and excelled by 1984. In 1986-88 he was world class. But to call him better than Vishy is blasphemy.

[The Outsider]

^Yeah, I did go overboard calling Vengsarkar better than Viswanath - probably a result of a combination of Salil calling him a support act, the Steelers' last minute win, and copious amount of beer while celebrating the win. But he was not that far off either. Yes, Viswanath has been called the best by Gavaskar but really he was way too inconsistent and one of my first memories of watching cricket are of him getting owned by Imran Khan in the '82-'83 series innings after innings.

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Rajan]

First of all... let me apologise if I had hurt any Vengsarkar fans. I just used the title Who let the D... as in the famous song cos Vengsarkar's first name starts with D. Even my name starts with D and you guys can one day use the same agaist me as well :) So to clear the cloud. it was not my intention to call Vengasrkar a Dog... For a commentator or an expert analyst to be a hit among the audience, he needs to have the following: 1. A decent command over the language (be it Eng or Hindi depending on which language the show is hosted - would anyone of you put up with Kris Srikanth speaking hindi on a Hindi cricket chat show?) 2. Good knowledge of the game and content to talk 3. A sense of humour 4. Clear thoughts that are expressed neatly without confusing the listener 5. Unbiased opinions. Clearly Vengsarkar doesnt have the first 4 of them. Althought I'm tempted to say the he deserves to be dropped from the NEO sports panel based on his skill levels, just like he has dropped Ganguly from ODI citing his fielding incapabilties, I wont do it. Because when i started this thread, I dint have a semblance of thought that he dropped Ganguly. I just started it after the pain of listening to his zero content rants on tv and was thinking that lot of others also feel the same... nothing to do with Ganguly dropping. After all I have seen Kolkatta and West Bengal only in the maps.

Good points Dhina.agree with you.

[Rajan]

Point conceded. I had the chance to see him live once in a veterans exhibition match at the CCI - India v. West Indies (think around '94?). He scored a hundred that day, and even though he'd been inactive for several years you could tell he was a really classy strokeplayer with amazing timing and grace - just wish I'd been able to watch the man live back in his glory days. BTW, that same evening our family had gone to the Oberoi for dinner - Vengsarkar was sitting at the table next to us. Got to talk with him for a few minutes/get some photos/an autograph, and he was a class act.

His last game was 1991 , if i am correct he scored 2 half centuries in the same series down under where sachin made his mark with perth & sydney hundreds.the veteran's match was in 1994, that was just 3 years from the last match Vengsarkar test had played. he must have been around 37 that time.

[Shane]

Sorry to inform you Dinakar, but this man has ample knowledge about english language. It is just that he stammers while speaking and that happens in whichever language he speaks.

Heard him for the first time today, man he sucks, i dont think its the stammering, hez simply not proficient enough with the language and not indepth with his insights, After Colonel, Mohinder sounds like Nicholas to me No disrespect, but Nimbus get him outta here !!!

[Dinx - the Jinx]

Slowly but steadily my point about Vengsarkar the expert speaker is garnering support. I have nothing against Vengsarkar as a player, as an academy coach or as a selector. But as a speaker, he doesnt make the cut. Sooner NEO sports get rid of him the better. Even now I'm listening to the Extra Cover on NEO. While RK and Srinath go on and on.. Vengsarkar just starts, get lost and stops abruptly. Its like in a classroom when the Prof look at you and ask a question, you look at the person next to you, hoping that he's the one prof is pointing at. And when Prof points finger at you, blabber something and sit down. My dear friends, thats exactly the sorry plight of Vengsarkar on this show. No use in defending him talking about his innings in veteran matches etc etc. Sorry - thats clearly off topic, cos we are not discussing Vensarkar the player...

[The Outsider]

It was embarassing listening to him today! Even the Sri Lankan commentator(don't know which one - was half asleep) standing with Gavaskar could not understand what Vengsarkar was asking.