Mumbai: Former captain Dilip Vengsarkar today called for the immediate sacking of coach Duncan Fletcher and other support staff in the wake of India's humiliating Test series loss to England and came down heavily on captain M S Dhoni for making "glaring mistakes" for which the team paid a heavy price.
Vengsarkar said that Dhoni led the team poorly right through the series with field placings and strategies which defied common sense but there was no one ready to take over the mantle of captaincy.
"Dhoni led the team poorly. His selection policy, strategy, field placing and bowling changes lacked common sense. He made some glaring mistakes match after match for which India paid heavily," Vengsarkar told PTI in an interview here.
"Unfortunately for him and India, he had Duncan Fletcher as the coach who, it seems, is devoid of any ideas and has no clue as to how to turn things around. He, it seems, hardly motivated the young team", he said.
The 116-Test veteran said that the support staff should be sacked immediately as they have really let down the team very badly. "The support staff and the think tank really let down the team very badly. I hope the BCCI sacks them immediately unless they go once again by what the senior players in the team feel about them" he said.
Vengsarkar was also scathing in his criticism of the selection panel headed by Sandeep Patil and said the committee lacked vision and had failed to groom players for different slots.
"The glaring facts are that we do not have anybody to take over from Dhoni straightaway as our cupboards are absolutely empty. We just haven't groomed players for different slots. If they have Indian cricket at heart then it's time the BCCI must wear its thinking cap and atleast plan for the future", he pointed out.
