Virender Sehwag was deeply hurt on not getting Team India coach job: Mentor AN Sharma
Mumbai: Virender Sehwag on Saturday made a u-turn on his comments on selection of Team India coach, saying that the comments were made in jest, but his childhood mentor and coach A.N.Sharma believes that Sehwag was "deeply hurt".
"Viru was deeply hurt on not getting the coach post. Whatever he had in his mind have come out now. Otherwise why would he say so three months after he was dumped ?", Sharma, speaking exclusively over his mobile from Delhi, said.
"I had not discussed this topic with him in last three months. This is because I didn't want to hurt his feelings more and hit a nerve".
Virender Sehwag was one of the candidates for the post of Team India’s head coach, after Anil Kumble’s exit in June. However, it was Ravi Shastri who ttok over as the chief coach of the Men in Blue.
A.N.Sharma also added that legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar had a “soft corner” towards Ravi Shastri.
"Sehwag did not get the job because Sachin Tendulkar asked Shastri to apply for the post. Shastri was reported to be not interested in the job and Saurav Ganguly was also not in his favour. Sachin had "soft corner" for Shastri. It was only later the other two members of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) (Ganguly and VVS Laxman) could not voice their opinion against Sachin's wish and Viru's application was thus dumped", said Sharma.
"Sehwag was encouraged to apply for the post. He had an opportunity to be the coach of the national team but was very disappointed when the post didn't come to him,” he further commented.
Same result
Sehwag's mentor, however, is not willing to give full credit to Shastri for Team India's recent success in Sri Lanka, saying that had Sehwag been the coach, results would have been no different.
"Had Sehwag been India coach, the results would have been same. Sri Lanka is a very weak team and India could have won 9-0 (three Tests, five ODIs', and one T20) "easily".
Sehwag had once recommended his mentor's name for the Dronacharya Award. "Even the Haryana Cricket Association had put forward my name but the BCCI rejected Viru's plea and the award went to some other person", recalled Sharma.
