‘Almost done with BCCI’: Murali Vijay slamms BCCI for lack of opportunities

Once being India’s first choice opener in Tests, right-handed batsman Murali Vijay has given a hint at a possibility of playing in overseas leagues. The 38-year-old took a dig at BCCI with this bold statement.

Vijay who was a regular feature in the Indian test set-up has expressed his desires of playing competitive cricket overseas and says he is almost done with the BCCI. The Tamil Nadu born batsman has directly taken a dig at the BCCI as he stated that the board has failed to provide opportunities.

In a weekly interview with WV Raman on Sportstar, Vijay remarked “I want to play a little bit of competitive cricket. My time at BCCI is almost up, and I’m exploring for opportunities abroad”.

Vijay last test match for India dates back to December 2018 in the tour of Australia. With high levels of competition to find a place in the Indian team and owing to poor form, Vijay was has failed to find a place back into the team.

He featured for his state team Tamil Nadu back in 2019. The same is Vijay’s story in the IPL. His last IPL game was back in 2020 for Chennai Super Kings and has failed to attract any bidders in the next editions.

Vijay pointed out the fact that in India, people tend to neglect cricketers above 30 years old and it becomes very difficult to make a comeback once a player passes a certain age. It is mainly due to high level of competitive cricket that is being played in India and with the huge amount of player base.

While taking a dig at BCCI, Vijay mentioned

“In India, it’s taboo to play after 30. (smiles). We appear to people as 80-year-olds strolling along the street. I think you are at your best in your 30s. I believe I am batting as best I can from where I am sitting right now”

”Unfortunately, there weren’t as many options, so I had to look elsewhere for opportunities. “I genuinely believe that a person can only control their own actions. The uncontrolled cannot be controlled. Whatever occurred, occurred”

The stylish batsman was regarded as one of India’s premier batsmen in overseas conditions. He has scored a total of 3982 runs in 61 tests with an average of 38.29 that was backed up by 12 hundreds and 17 fifties. He also has 17 ODIs and 9 T20s to his name and scored 339 and 169 runs in the respective formats.

In his first-class-career, Vijay has a total of 9205 runs under his belt from 135 matches with 25 hundreds and 38 half-centuries.