Youngsters who don’t know much about the present chairman of the selection committee, here’s a profile sketch of the cricketer who was also known as ‘The Colonel’.

Dilip Vengsarkar started his cricket at an early age of 19. He caught the then selector’s eye when he scored a breezy 110 for Bombay against the Rest of India in the Irani Trophy match at Nagpur in 1975. Noticing his immense potential, he was straightaway inducted into the Indian team for the kiwi tour. He made his debut at Auckland in 1975-76 by opening the innings but met with minimal success.

After a few forgettable performances came the turning point in his career where the tour down under in 1977-78 changed everything. His consistent knocks helped him cement his place in the side for the next 15 years. Tall and slimly built, Vengsarkar was basically an elegant stroke player and one of the foremost exponents of the drive who on his day could be a tormentor of even the strongest attacks. He was India’s No 3 for many years and from that pivotal position guided the fortunes of the country’s batting for more than a decade.

Vengsarkar was a member of the 1983 World Champion’s team who had a magnificent run of scores between 1985 and 1987, where he scored centuries against Pakistan, Australia, England, West Indies and Sri Lanka, many of them in successive games. He attained the distinction of scoring three consecutive Test match centuries at Lord’s. At his peak in 87-88, he was one of Wisden’s cricketers of the year and also rated as best batsmen in the Coopers and Lybrand.

Vengsarkar captained the Indian team for a year which he lost following the disastrous tour of the West Indies in 1989 and a stand-off with the Indian cricket board (BCCI).

He lost his place in the side temporarily but was brought back for a few games in the early 90s. After the disastrous tour of Australia in 1991-92 he announced his retirement and eventually ended up scoring 6,868 Test runs at 41.13 with 17 hundreds and more than 3500 ODI runs at 34.73 with 1 ton, respectively.

For his contribution to the Indian cricket the Government of India conferred upon him with the Padma Shri in 1988. He now runs the Elf cricket academy in Mumbai and is the chairman of the BBCI selection committee.