10 interesting stories and records about Virender Sehwag

#9 Jaywant Lele and Madan Lal were instrumental in Sehwag’s selection in ODIs

Borde was chariman of selectors when Sehwag was chosen to play for the Indian team

Sehwag had made his ODI debut against Pakistan in April 1999, however, he was not picked again for close to 20 months. His chance came against the touring Zimbabwe team in 2000.

But even this chance would not have come had it not been for former BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele. Lele had recently revealed that north zone selector Madan Lal always used to bring up Sehwag’s name during selection committee meetings. And his suggestion was always ignored by the other members of the selection committee.

So, when the team for the 5th ODI to be played at Rajkot was being discussed, Madan Lal again had planned to bring up Sehwag’s name. But this time, he took Lele in confidence and asked him to convince chairman of selectors Chandu Borde, who was also Lele’s close friend.

Lele did go to Borde to convince him to include Sehwag and Borde did agree, on the condition that Lele will take up the responsibility of the selection by saying that the chairman could not be contacted and that’s why Sehwag was selected.

Thankfully, Sehwag did not look back after this match and avoided an explanation on the parts of Lele and Borde.