First it was some unnamed official/cricketer in the Pakistan Cricket Board. Now it is Dilip Vengsarkar. After having successfully staved off even the faintest whiff of a controversy all through his playing career, has Javagal Srinath finally—finally!—been embroiled in one?
The issue is Srinath’s selection as a second tier ICC match referee. Somebody in the PCB first let word out that the PCB was displeased because three of its own people had been overlooked in favour of Srinath. It hinted that Sunil Gavaskar had played dirty. And then it denied saying any such thing.
Now, Vengsarkar has jumped into the ring. The Bombay batsman, never very close to Gavaskar (for some thrilling non-cricketing reasons, which we cannot divulge), has said he had jumped into the ICC referee fray only after he had been promised that he would get it.
And believe it or not, Vengsarkar, whose cup of dough is overflowing with his thriving Elf academy, his involvement with the Mumbai Cricket Association, and the National Cricket Academy, among other things, says he is sorely disappointed at having lost out to Srinath!
Srinath, of course, has predictably stayed away from the row. But in choosing the Mysorean over Vengsarkar, Kiran More and Shivlal Yadav has Gavaskar played a neat trick or made a wise move?
churumuri 
As far as the selection itself goes, I certainly think with the image Srinath is perceived to have, it is the right choice. A match referee, I believe should have both the cricketing strature and a clean image to be seen as impartial.
If we take Vengsarkar he certainly has the strature and generally he has been non controversial but he has had problems with Gavaskar and if I remember right, Malcolm Marshall had issues with him as mentioned in his book. So though he might be a gentleman the image could be seen to have the slightest of problems.
As for the rest of the gentlemen, Srinath arguably has better cricketing strature over them. We know more about Yadav or More as selectors than as players. The persons named from the Pak side also seem to be non cricketers ( I might be mistaken). So Sri scores here too.
As they say about judges and judgements, justice should not only be done but has to be seen to be done. Going by this token, Srinath certainly has the right image & the strature required for such a post. His image will land him in good stead when there are controversial moments which are becoming increasingly common in cricket.
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Sorry in my previous comments I meant to say stature and typed strature by mistake.
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Hmmm..Javagal Srinath was never an intelligent cricketer Unlike Kumble or even Prasad .Srinath was a hardworking bowler and used his might to deliver the ball.Prasad used to mix deliveries and more controlled but he lacked pace . These are my individual views and I know people here are passionate about Mysore and Srinath .
I was also amazed when he was named ‘Most famous Mysorean’ ..Outside Karnataka ..people know srinath only as one of the other cricketer from karnataka/Bangalore . Except ‘Mysore Masala Dose’ Which can be found on most menu’s across the world . Nothing is famous .
Kumble would be an excellant referee ( when kumble retires ofcourse) .
I cant comment on Srinath Administrative/referee skills .
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Certainly there might be other cricketers or individuals better suited for the post. Even I am not sure if he is best suited for Most Famous Mysorean.
But here we are only commenting with respect to the people mentioned i.e. Vengsarkar, More, Yadav and the Pak candidates. Among these it is my opinion that Srinath is a better choice.
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Well, we all agree (other than KP and gang, of course) that Srinath definitely shouldn’t be at the top of Most famous Mysorean list.
And, Prasad I disagree that we know Kiran More more because of him being in the selection committe. That’s true with repect to Yadav, but we certainly remember More as a player. He kept wickets for long enough time.
IMO, Is Srinath a good choice ? Yes. Would Vengsarkar have been equally god ? yes. So, I don’t see a point for controversy here other than the fact that Gavaskar may have chosen Srinath ‘over’ Vengsarkar. That then boils down to the rift between Gavaskar and Vengsarkar, and the reason for the rift is known only to a selected few who won’t leak it to the rest of the worl anyway !!!
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I agree with DS. How is Srinath in the middle of a controversy? By your own admission, he has stayed out of it by staying slient. It is Vengsarkar who has created one and is in the thick of it.
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Ok December Stud, probably it was not very charitable of me to say that More is better known as a selector. He did play a good number of Tests (49)and ODIs (94) but as a cricketer I would rate him a notch below Sri.
Also as a selector he might have ruffled some feathers, so his choice would not be unanimous within the Indian Board itself.
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Sure Prasad, I agree. Definitely More was a notch below Srinath. But, I do remember More keeping wickets for a long time. Infact, in one of the games against South Africa a commentator mentioned that More had been keeping wickets for a very long time, and in the very next one day Vijay Yadav replaced More. I thought that was quite funny.
And, of course who can forget the legendary duel between More and Miandad during ’92 world Cup !!!
After Kirmani, it was only More and Mongia who stuck around for a long time. Of course, we ahve the new breed now.
P.S: Rememebr Sadanand Vishwanath…what a waste of talent. BTW, A good friend of mine in Kuvempu Nagar claimed that SV was his ‘sOdara mAva’. I could never verify that….
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Good that Sri ( Srinath ) got the job. Relieve the TV viewer from his negative commentary. Take the recent incident. Mr. Sri was doing commentary and it was the 3rd test between India VS England in Mumbai. India’s last hope Mr. Dhoni cleaning up Mr. Flintoff by hitting 2 boundaries in as many deliveries. But alas what a bad luck……..third ball he was referred to the third umpire as stumps dislodged towards the non strikers end in an effort to steal one run which was totally unnecessary. And given out by third umpire our own (if iam right Mr.JayaPrakash). But replay clearly shows that bails were dislodged only after Dhoni stamped his bat in……..but wickets were dismantled. All fellow English commentators were saying it was wrong on the part of 3rd umpire to give it out as any doubt in the issue should go in flavor of batsman. But what is this only one disagrees is Mr. Srinath. Ultimately India Lost the game.God bless India. and Thank you Mr. Srinath and Mr.JayaPrakash. Some people heard English men laughing in the back round………………….
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Speaking of Sadanand Vishwanath, the ODI championship in Australia in 84 where he made his mark, offered a lot of hope. It was a pity he never made it big after that.
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