Sachin, Prasad will be the next casualties warns Wadekar

Former India captain and manager Ajit Wadekar has warned the Board of Control for Cricket in India that if 'overtaxing' of the players continues, then captain Sachin Tendulkar and Venkatesh Prasad may soon join Javagal Srinath on the injured list.

Widely considered one of the most successful Indian captains and managers ever, he blamed the BCCI for overtaxing the players by undertaking excessive and long tours.

In an interview to the TVI network, Wadekar said, ''Of course, there is money in it, so naturally players would not like to say no to that. It is for the Board to decide how important it is. Look what happaned to Srinath. He is the first casualty, Prasad or Sachin may be the next casualty."

He was not convinced that Srinath had all of a sudden developed pain in his shoulder ''I think Srinath should come back, I don't know how he was allowed to go to the West Indies and suddenly declared unfit. It sounds very strange,'' Wadekar said.

Srinath, the former Indian manager said, had declared that he would not be able to throw overarm and ''he would throw underarm. That shows he was unfit from the very start."

He also expressed surprise over the selection of off-spinner Noel David for the West Indies tour. ''Sachin asked one of the journalists, 'Who is this David?' Nobody has heard of him. While selecting the 16 member squad for the Caribbean tour, the selectors did not find any good off-spinner but now they have suddenly found David, 'an off-spinner of international class.' This is very funny. I don't how they are selecting the team," Wadekar said.