Former Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary, who played 12 ODIs and three T20Is for India, recently addressed the hot topic of his relationship with Gautam Gambhir
in an exclusive conversation with CricTracker. The former Bengal stalwart also elaborated on the multiple reasons he felt why his ex-Kolkata Knight Riders captain and current head coach of the Indian team is not a man of his words.
Tiwary, who has over 10000 runs in First-Class format and 5581 in the 50-over cricket, spoke at length on why he felt the selection for the Indian cricket team as well as the newly-introduced Bronco Test should be revealed to the cricket fraternity on live telecast in order to eliminate any sorts of questions in relation to potential partiality playing a role.
Excerpts from the interview
In one of the interviews, you mentioned that Gautam Gambhir abused you and your family. How did that episode affect your bond with him, and where do things stand between you both today?
See, this is one incident, obviously, we are both not proud of because he knows what he has done. So the relationship, obviously, is not on good terms because I've openly come forward and told about the incident to a couple of news channels also, where I've given my full version of what has happened. So, I don't want to repeat again and again and again. It's just that things were not good at that point of time. So, when someone abuses your mother or father for no reason, then obviously you get angry and you get frustrated. You want to fight with him. But like I said earlier as well, it is a thing of the past.
My relationship with him will never be good. It will never be good because I know what he has done. And a lot of things he has said which will be difficult to forget. But yes, I'm not someone who will come forward and keep saying about these things again and again. Whoever asked me the question, I answered that particular time. I'm also very occupied and secured in my life. I don't have time to speak all these things.
I always felt that he's someone who is a hypocrite. He's a hypocrite because he's the one who said that India, when he was not the coach of Team India, said that India and Pakistan should never play a match between them. What will he do now? He's the coach of the team that's going to play Pakistan in the Asia Cup. Why can't he just resign and say that I will not be part of the team India because you are playing with Pakistan? He's the one who said that Yashasvi Jaiswal is one of the players who is the future of Team India and also he's someone who will not be kept outside T20. He should not be kept outside T20. He should be given a longer run. And now, he's not there in the team (for Asia Cup 2025).
So, a lot of things apart from these couple of statements where he said, and he has just done the opposite. So, I always felt that he's a hypocrite, and he's always been a hypocrite. And he also said that when he was not there in the Indian team as a coach, he said that these foreign coaches don't have any feelings for Team India. They should not be given the opportunity or the job to be part of Team India. But now, you see, when he came in, he got Morne Morkel (bowling coach), he got Ryan ten Doeschate as assistant coach. These two individuals are good. But when you say that these guys don't have any feelings, so why did you ask them to be part of your team setup. There are a lot of instances where I felt that he's a hypocrite and it's open to the public as well.
How do you view the current Indian team selection process? Do you feel it is completely merit-based, or do elements of favouritism still influence the final call?
It is very difficult to say, firstly, because I don't know what happens during the team selections. Also, I really admire Ajit Agarkar as a person, as an individual. I always felt that he has great knowledge of cricket. He's very sharp with his cricketing ideas. And he's someone who will take the call and he will take up on himself. But what happens during the team selections, we have the advantage of so many talented pool of cricketers where you can pick our squad.
And that is the reason why I've always said earlier as well, in the last few years, I've been enforcing, advocating that the team selection should be aired on television live. It should come live on television because it is important for the cricket fans and others who are stakeholders of Team India to know how a player is getting picked, whether it is getting picked on his merit or someone is forcing him to get picked from his own zone, basically. Because we obviously hear a lot of things that a certain zone has pushed this player into Team India. It has happened earlier as well.
It will be a good idea in my opinion that if it happens live on television, and also I want to see this Bronco Test also happens live on television because I want to see who are passing these fitness tests and who are the ones who are missing out on this fitness test. For more transparency in the selections and the fitness test, I'm again advocating to have these two live on television so that everything is on thee forefront to all the stakeholders of Indian cricket.
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