MSK Prasad broke his silence after Ambati Rayudu made accusations against him. He said that there is no room for personal bias in a meeting of a national selection group. Rayudu said that Prasad didn’t like him and that’s why he wasn’t picked for the India team for the 2019 World Cup. The former top selector of India replied to Rayudu’s claim.
“Personality can’t have anything to do with picking the national team. There are five other selectors in a meeting, so the perceived or alleged bias of one of them can’t change the result. “Every selection or non-selection is a group decision,” Prasad told Cricadda after Rayudu announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, including the IPL, and said he was hurt by Prasad’s personal grudges during his time with the Andhra team.
Prasad wouldn’t talk about what happened at that selection meeting in 2019 because he said it would be wrong of him to do so. Devang Gandhi, Gagan Khoda, Sarandeep Singh, and Jatin Paranjpe were the four other people on the group. Even the team’s captain, Virat Kohli, was there.
Rayudu said that the team should have chosen a No. 4 batter, but instead they chose an all-arounder like Vijay Shankar. “The team needed a player to bat fourth. By skipping this requirement and going for a player who could do everything, they missed the point. If they had taken an experienced opener like Rahane (Ajinkya) or someone else, it would make sense. “The No. 4 batsman needs to be able to both block one end and score runs, depending on the situation,” Rayudu recently said in a scathing attack on Prasad on a Telugu TV station.
Rayudu said that he had to live with Prasad when he went from Hyderabad to Andhra because he didn’t get along with Shivlal Yadav, who was president of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) at the time. “I’m not saying I went through hard times because of him, but I didn’t like the way Prasad did things. I had to go back to Hyderabad because of that.”
Rayudu, who is 37 years old, has played for India in 55 ODIs and six T20Is. He was on Prasad’s Andhra team in the 2005/06 season.
