Vengsarkar slaps legal notice on news channel

Claiming damages worth Rs 1 crore, chairman of the selection committee Dilip Vengsarkar on Monday slapped a legal notice on a television news channel that allegedly suggested that Vengasarkar selected the candidates of the Indian cricket team for “extraneous considerations”.

Taking exception to the programme aired on October 28 between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm, Vengasarkar has said that the programme created doubts in the minds of the viewer regarding his “cricketing and financial integrity.”

The notice also mentions that the presenter of the programme ‘suggested’ that the players associated with Gameplan were selected on the team as Vengsarkar writes a column for the agency.

Vengsarkar has further objected to his picture superimposed over that of the poster of a gangster played by Amitabh Bachchan in the Ram Gopal Verma film Sarkar.

The picture titled ‘Sarkar II’ was shown at the beginning of the programme titled “Colonel Ka Gameplan”.

The notice demanded an unconditional apology from the channel along with damages of Rs 1 crore.

The programme was interspersed with interviews of former players including that of Sandip Patil who had said that in the past too, factors other than merit had influenced the selection of a player into the team.