Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has raised a number of questions on the BCCI officials that held the office a decade ago, when he and other players of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad were “removed from the team one by one”.
Harbhajan, who retired in December as India’s second-highest international wicket-taker, expressed his frustrations and also cast doubts over fairness within selection after the 2011 World Cup.
The Turbanoator slammed the then BCCI officials for picking a “section” of players post 2011 while ignoring those who had won India the ODI World Cup after 28 years and were still in their prime cricketing years.
Speaking with journalist Boria Majumdar on his show “Backstage with Boria”, Harbhajan Singh said, “You also know what those officials were doing, what was happening in Indian cricket at that time and which section of people were playing, and how others were being ignored. If we were good enough to win the World Cup in 2011, why didn’t we play even a single match together after that? Was that team good enough just to win the World Cup and became worse after that?”
He added further: “Were 31-year-old Harbhajan Singh, 30-year-old Yuvraj Singh, 32-year-old Virender Sehwag, 29-year-old Gautam Gambhir who played in 2011, not good enough to play in the World Cup team of 2015? Why were they removed from the team one by one? Why were they treated like ‘Use and Throw’? It’s a sad story of Indian cricket. I don’t know what’s happening now but till 2011 a lot of people helped me, a lot of them pulled my leg. But after 2012 they pulled my leg to throw me out completely.”
Harbhajan featured in just 10 ODIs, 10 Tests, and half-a-dozen T20Is after the 2011 World Cup, with his last game in national colours coming in 2016. The 41-year-old revealed that he was not given any explanation by the selectors for his axing, and felt hurt how he was treated despite being a legend for India.
“I was 31 in 2011 and had picked up 400 wickets. And a 31-year-old boy can’t take 400 wickets overnight. He must have done something right. Yes, I have won a few games for India and I have done very bad in a few games too. That’s the way the game goes.
“But if you call another player with 400 wickets a legend and here I am thrown out of the team without any explanation. No selector, no BCCI official is present to answer me, even the captain told me he didn’t know what had happened. I still don’t know what happened then. If you can treat such a big player like that then it shows that anything can happen with any player,” Harbhajan added.
