Selectors chose fitness over talent after 2011 WC: Karim

New Delhi: The Indian cricket team’s selection panel needed to inculcate some youngsters into the squad after the 2011 World Cup, in order for the team to progress in the ICC rankings, believes former wicketkeeper-batsman Saba Karim.

Karim, who was a part of Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) selection committee, from 2012, said at a press conference in New Delhi that the selectors were planning for the future, as a number of the players were getting older.

"We came in as national cricket selectors in 2012, a year after India had won the ODI World Cup,” said Karim. “There were a number of senior players with immense contribution to the team's success. But after winning the 2011 World Cup, India had lost a few series.”

While indicating that the selectors were planning to inculcate more youngsters in the India squad after the 2011 World Cup, Karim also revealed that the Sandeep Patil-led selection panel wanted to take Team India to the summit of the ICC rankings across all three formats of the game.

“We had a vision on what we wanted to do in the next four years and that was to see India becoming No.1 team across all three formats of the game,” said Karim.

“We chose to select players who had high fitness levels, besides talent and skills and slowly included them in the team. And eventually we met our goal of becoming number one in Tests, ODIs as well as Twenty20 cricket.”