‘BCCI chief saved Dhoni from getting axed’
13 Dec 2012 7:53 AM IST
Mohinder Amarnath, hero of India’s 1983 World Cup winning squad, dropped the second bombshell in as many days when he alleged BCCI chief N Srinivasan of preventing five national selectors from sacking skipper MS Dhoni after the Australia series earlier this year. On Tuesday, Amarnath said the selectors lacked courage to drop MS Dhoni. The former batsman’s comments come at a delicate time as India prepare to level the four-Test series against England by winning the final Test starting at Nagpur on Thursday.
Amarnath said the selection committee, including himself, were unanimous about sacking Dhoni after India were blanked in the four-Test series Down Under. The idea was to name a new skipper for the ensuing ODI series but BCCI chief Srinivasan overruled the decision. ‘The board president did not approve the decision to replace Dhoni. When you respect a person, you don’t ask questions... but my question here is: you have a selection committee which thinks what is best for Indian cricket, then why it is not given a free hand? We were trying to look ahead, we wanted a young captain to come in, so that we can go ahead and do something better in near future... if we don’t look ahead, we won’t have a good team in the future. We selected 17 players for the series but we did not select the captain,’ he said. Asked why the committee didn’t raise the issue then, time, Amarnath said, ‘The decision was not to resign at that time. We did not want to create a big stir then as the team was playing abroad and the series was on.’
Amarnath said the selection committee, including himself, were unanimous about sacking Dhoni after India were blanked in the four-Test series Down Under. The idea was to name a new skipper for the ensuing ODI series but BCCI chief Srinivasan overruled the decision. ‘The board president did not approve the decision to replace Dhoni. When you respect a person, you don’t ask questions... but my question here is: you have a selection committee which thinks what is best for Indian cricket, then why it is not given a free hand? We were trying to look ahead, we wanted a young captain to come in, so that we can go ahead and do something better in near future... if we don’t look ahead, we won’t have a good team in the future. We selected 17 players for the series but we did not select the captain,’ he said. Asked why the committee didn’t raise the issue then, time, Amarnath said, ‘The decision was not to resign at that time. We did not want to create a big stir then as the team was playing abroad and the series was on.’
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