Watch | 'Dhoni, Rohit, Virat and Dravid ruined 10 years of my son's career': Sanju Samson's father

Samson's father's outspoken comments have sparked debates among fans and pundits alike.

Sanju Samson's father expressed his frustration against Indian Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma, former captains Virat Kohli and M S Dhoni, and former national coach Rahul Dravid for allegedly stifling Sanju's international career for 10 years.

In a recent interview to Malayalam media outlet Media One, which went viral on social media, Vishwanath Samson, the father of Kerala-born keeper-batter Sanju Samson, criticised Kohli, Dhoni, Dravid and Rohit, accusing them of wasting his son's 10 precious years by not giving him consistent opportunities at the international level.

"There are 3-4 people who wasted 10 years of my son's vital career... captains like Dhoni ji, Virat [Kohli] ji, Rohit [Sharma] ji, and coach [Rahul] Dravid ji," he said, adding that they had "destroyed 10 years of my son's life."

He also praised his son's resilience to work hard despite the set backs. "The more they hurt him, the stronger Sanju came out of the crisis."

Samson senior also spoke against Kris Srikkanth's criticism of Sanju, saying, "What hurt me really bad was comments from [Kris] Srikkanth, the player from Tamil Nadu. He said, 'against whom did Sanju score a century? It was only Bangladesh.' A century is a century, and that guy has scored only 26 runs against Bangladesh. Sanju has scored a hundred and he is a player with a classical touch like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. At least respect that."

The 30-year-old has been in and out of the Indian team over the past decade or so, with experts believing that his inconsistency is what is keeping him from staying in the squad. Having scored back-to-back centuries recently for India in the ongoing T20 series against South Africa, Sanju failed top open his account in the subsequent two innings' highlighting his issues with consistency.

His father's outspoken comments have sparked debates many times. In the past he was even asked not to 'interfere with his son's cricketing activities' when he lashed out at ex Kerala Cricket Association secretary TC Matthew over an alleged misconduct by Sanju during a Ranji Trophy game.

Sanju has scored 701 runs in 32 T20Is innings so far with an average of 24.17 and a strike rate of 150.42. In ODIs, he has scored 510 runs in 14 innings with a strike rate of 99.60.