India’s ace spinner Harbhajan Singh announced his retirement, recently, from all the formats of the game. He shared a video message on Twitter for his fans, announcing his decision to retire from the game. Bhajji, who made his international debut back in March 1998, has played numerous memorable performances for the Indian side. However, recently, he revealed how he wasn’t backed by the Indian side.
Recently, in a conversation with Dainik Jagran, Harbhajan Singh reflected on his cricketing journey and revealed how he was backed by former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly as a youngster. Bhajji also revealed how it was in 2012 when he felt he could’ve used some help.
For the unversed, after India’s triumph in World Cup 2011, Harbhajan Singh suffered a lean patch in his career. He himself revealed how he could’ve used some help to get his career back on his track but he didn’t receive the support he was seeking for. Bhajji feels if that support had come at the right time, he would have ended his Test career with better figures. He said:
“As long as there is support, it feels great. I would say that if the support had come at the right time, I would have taken 500-550 wickets long ago, because when I was 31 years old I had taken 400 wickets and if I had played for three-four more years I would have taken 500-550 wickets.
He added:
“But, all that did not happen. There are so many reasons for that, if we go into that, we will dig up a lot of things, which I don’t want to do,”
Further, Bhajji also opined that he didn’t get the respect that a player, who has picked 400 wickets should get. Bhajji rose to fame under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly, however, his career graph started to go downhill for him in 2012, when MS Dhoni was leading the Indian cricket team.
During that time, Ravichandran Ashwin was rising up the ranks and therefore, he took his place, owing to his brilliant performances, Bhajji was replaced by Ashwin. Though, Bhajji did get a few opportunities but soon he fazed out of the team entirely.
“There comes a time when you must give your players the respect they deserve. But that is the decision of a particular category of people. I would like to say that after 2001-02, the support that Sourav Ganguly gave to me, there was no such need for support, but in 2012, had I been supported, my career would have been better.”
Furthermore, Bhajji also took a dig at the selectors in the chat, saying that he was dropped from the squad without being given a reason. In fact, he revealed how he himself reached out to the selectors but got no response from them. He revealed:
“400 wickets are not obtained by bowling poorly. When someone takes 400 wickets, after that he does not get a chance to play and is not even told why he has been dropped. So many big questions were there in my mind, which no one answered. I tried to get in touch with many people, from the selectors to everyone, but then no one told me why I was dropped,” Bhajji said.
He added:
“I asked them have I suddenly lost my appearance or my bowling has deteriorated or what has happened that you are not choosing me at all. There was no answer to this. And if this can happen to the 400 wicket-taker, then no one will ask the 40 wicket-taker. This is a sad story of Indian cricket where the one who has achieved something, isn’t even talked to properly after he is not needed.”
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