Malhotra slams Wright as 'spineless coach'

Former National selector Ashok Malhotra dubbed ex India coach as a "spineless character" after the Kiwi lambasted the selection policy in his soon-to-be-released tell-all book 'Indian summers'.

Malhotra said Wright did not have an opinion of his own and would endorse any cricketer's name suggested by the selectors.

"In the end we had to remind him that there were only 14 players and he had to suggest names," Malhotra said.

He was reacting to a section from the book in which John Wright said, "The first six or seven selections were straight forward but when it got down to the marginal selections those last three or four sport determined the balance of our team and your ability to develop new players, the zonal factor kicked in and things would get interesting."

Malhotra asked, "Where do you think so many young players came from if the selectors were not doing their work? Virendra Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and their lot came in because of the selectors, he knew 20 players but we knew 290 and so their would be a difference."

"I am really sorry to say that these foreign coaches come to India to earn million dollars and go back to write books critising the country. When they are here they tore the lines, that is only when they go back they find so many faults," Malhotra said.

Another former selector Pranab Roy said if this was the situation so many years then only one player would not have played from Bengal.

"However, I would not like to comment anything regarding this matter further without reading the book," Mr Roy added.

The book also reportedly questioned Sourav Ganguly's credibility as a captain towards the end of John Wrights tenure as a coach.