On Team India's crushing defeat in the Border Gavaskar Trophy and the poor performance of veteran players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, former cricketers advised them to prepare for red ball cricket by playing domestic cricket. Sanjay Manjrekar was also unhappy with the performance of both of them and kept attacking them continuously. Now once again Manjrekar has targeted both the giants. He even said that Indian cricket is going backward due to giving more importance to some big players. He also said that the decline that Indian cricket is facing today was similar to the situation that had arisen during 2011-12.

Manjrekar against icon culture and hero worship

Manjrekar clearly said that when it comes to big players in India, fans are unable to remain rational due to their emotions being at their peak. Sanjay Manjrekar wrote in one of his columns for Hindustan Times, 'The biggest reason behind this is the 'icon' culture present in India and the hero worship of some players (giving more importance to big players). Be it 2011-12 or now, famous players are prominently seen doing the opposite of what they have been doing throughout their careers, leading to their poor performance leading to a decline in the team's performance.

The former cricketer further wrote, 'When India lost 0-8 to England and Australia in 2011-12, Sachin Tendulkar's average was 35, Virender Sehwag's 19.91 and VVS Laxman's average was 21.06. Rahul Dravid also had an average of 24.25 in Australia but he scored runs at an average of 76.83.

The selectors feel that we should not become villains.

Manjrekar also raised questions on the selectors and said that when big players are shown the way out of the team, they fear that they may become villains by doing so. According to Manjrekar, the role of selectors is bigger than that of the head coach and it makes a lot of difference.

Manjrekar wrote, 'We do not realize how much impact a selector's work has, he can make a bigger difference in the fortunes of the Indian team than any coach. No matter who the player is, we have to make Ajit Agarkar's job easy to take a good decision. Australia don't wait for a player to retire before he becomes a major liability, dropping him'.