Murali Vijay pins comeback hopes on Ganguly, calls him a 'players' man'

Out of favour Test opener Murali Vijay has pinned his hopes of making a comeback to the national side on BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and has backed the former Indian skipper to ensure a fair deal for players wanting to make a comeback. Murali Vijay was reputed for his fiery form as an opener, especially in the overseas tours, but lost his place in the side last year and has not managed to find a way back inside. At a time when India's Test team looks set and well made, Vijay's chances of making a comeback look bleak, especially with other contenders such as Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill. 

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Vijay pins comeback hopes on Ganguly

Speaking to a news daily, Murali Vijay hoped that BCCI President Sourav Ganguly could bring about a change for cricketers who wanted to make a comeback and backed Ganguly to understand the emotions of a cricketer as he himself had gone through the same phases. Hailing the former skipper as a 'player's man', Vijay expressed that he was looking forward to Ganguly's stint as BCCI President and said that he had a strong personality. Murali Vijay also admitted that he was hurt after he was left out of the India A and Duleep Trophy sides and said that Ganguly hsould ensure a fair platform for players who want to make a return and there should not be a 'cut and chop job' that left the players clueless.

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Vijay fined 10% match fee for dissent

Out-of-favour India opener Murali Vijay was on Monday fined 10% of his match fee for expressing dissent over an on-field decision by the umpires on the opening day of the Ranji Trophy match between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The incident happened just two balls before tea in the 70th over when Ravichandran Ashwin and Co. vociferously made a caught behind appeal against Pavan Deshpande but it was shot down by umpire Nitin Pandit. Disappointed with the decision, Ashwin and the rest of his teammates surrounded the pitch before umpire Pandit walked up to the ace spinner to have a chat.

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The square leg umpire Anil Dandekar, on the other hand, was trying to calm down an upset Vijay by holding his hand. The TN team management later said that Vijay has been fined 10% of his match fee. There were many decision which went against Tamil Nadu, leaving the players, including Ashwin, keeper N Jagadeesan and Vijay, aggrieved during the match. In the match, Karnataka reached 259/6 at stumps after electing to bat with Devdutt Padikkal (78) and Pavan Deshpande (65) being the top performers for the visitors.  For the hosts, debutant left-arm spinner M Siddharth snapped two wickets, while Ashwin, K Vignesh, and B Aparajith took one wicket each.

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