External Factors Weren't On My Side - Harbhajan Singh Reveals BCCI And MS Dhoni Didn't Want Him In The Team

Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh has claimed that the BCCI officials and the then captain, MS Dhoni, had decided that they didn’t want him in the team anymore which subsequently resulted in his axing from the Indian side back in 2011.

Harbhajan recently retired from all forms of cricket and he has been making quite a few revelations since then. The latest one includes his exclusion from the team and the squad following a dry patch.

“Luck has always favoured me. Just some external factors were not by my side and maybe they were completely against me. This is because of the way I was bowling or the rate at which I was moving ahead. I was 31 when I took 400 wickets and if I would have played another 4-5 years, keeping in mind the kind of standards I had set for myself, I can tell you that I would have taken another 100-150 wickets or more.“

“Yes, MS Dhoni was the captain then but I think this thing was above Dhoni’s head. To a certain extent, there were some BCCI officials who were involved in this and they didn’t want me and the captain may have supported that, but a captain can never be above the BCCI. The BCCI officials have always been bigger than the captain, coach, or the team,” Harbhajan said.

Dhoni had better backing than others – Harbhajan Singh

Harbhajan Singh also mentioned that MS Dhoni was backed very well by the management despite early struggles. He claimed that senior players like VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag didn’t get the same support when they were going through a tough period.

“Dhoni had better backing than other players; and if the rest of the players would have got the same kind of backing, then they would have played as well. It wasn’t as if the rest of the players forgot to swing a bat or didn’t know how to bowl all of a sudden. The big names like VVS (Laxman), Rahul (Dravid), Viru (Virender Sehwag), and many others who took retirement later didn’t get the chance,” Harbhajan added.

Harbhajan took 417 wickets in 103 Tests and 269 wickets in 236 ODIs for India.

Also Read – I Commend Him For Making A Decision That’s Right For Him – Jos Buttler On Quinton de Kock’s Retirement From Tests