"Wasted 10 years of my son's life" - Sanju Samson's father's big statement on Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma & 2 others
A clip of Sanju Samson's father Vishwanath has gone viral on social media, in which he asserted that former India captains MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and ex-India coach Rahul David wasted 10 years of his son's career. He believes that Samson didn't get the number of opportunities that he deserved.
Vishwanath emphasized that his son didn't give up despite the unfair treatment and overcame all the obstacles. Speaking to the Malayalam-language television channel MediaOne, Samson's father said:
"There are 3-4 people who wasted 10 years of my son's vital career...captains like Dhoni ji, Virat [Kohli] ji, Rohit [Sharma] ji and coach [Rahul] Dravid ji. These four people wasted 10 years of my son's life but the more they hurt him, the stronger Sanju came out of the crisis."
Vishwanath also launched a scathing attack at former India batter Kris Srikkanth, stating that the cricketer-turned-expert never praised Samson's performances. He was quoted as saying by Sports Tak:
"What hurt me really bad was comments from [Kris Srikkanth], the player from Tamil Nadu. I don't know what he has played. To this day, that individual has not spoken a good word of encouragement about my son, but has hurt him a lot with his words."
"He said - 'against whom did Sanju score a century? It was only Bangladesh,'. People have been saying he [Srikkanth] was a great player but I haven't seen it. Century is a century, and that guy has scored only 26 runs against Bangladesh. Sanju has scored a hundred and he is a player with a classical touch like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. At least respect that!" he added.
Sanju Samson made his T20I debut in 2015. However, he failed to establish himself as a mainstay in the Indian team for several years. The 30-year-old finally found his footing after being promoted to the opening spot.
The right-hander has looked in impressive form lately, notching up back-to-back centuries against Bangladesh and South Africa in T20Is. With his knocks of 111 and 107, he became the first Indian batter to hit consecutive T20I tons.
"I want to thank Gautam Gambhir bhai and Suryakumar bhai" - Sanju Samson's father
In the aforementioned interview, Sanju Samson's father also thanked India's T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav and head coach Gautam Gambhir for giving a new lease of life to his son. He reckoned that his son would have been dropped from the national team again if Suryakumar and Gambhir weren't part of the team management.
Vishwanath was quoted as saying by ABP News:
"I want to thank Gautam Gambhir bhai and Suryakumar bhai. If these two people did not come at this time, they would have dropped him from the team like in the past."
Sanju Samson will be seen in action in the upcoming third T20I of the four-match series between India and South Africa. The match will be played in Centurion on Wednesday, November 13.