New Delhi: Days after retiring from all forms of cricket, there is a lot of speculation about his future. Some say that he will now contest the Punjab Assembly elections, while some people say that he is going to join any team in the IPL as a coach. However, only time will tell what Bhajji will do in the future.
But for the time being, the 41-year-old claimed that ‘some BCCI officials’ led to his premature exit from the Indian setup, and former skipper MS Dhoni ‘may have supported that.’ He added that selection calls have always been beyond the captain and the coaches of the team.
“Yes. MS Dhoni was the captain then but I think this [selection] 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,” he revealed.
The former India spinner started falling out of favour in the longest format after 2011, featuring in only five Tests between 2012-15, while he did not play even a single ODI in 2012-14 before making his brief comeback in 2015.
“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,” he was quoted as saying to Zee News.
Harbhajan is considered as India’s one of the most successful off-spin bowler having bagged 711 wickets across formats. The ace spinner, who made his Test debut in 1998 against Australia in Bangalore, represented the nation in 103 Tests, scalping 417 wickets at 32.46, including five 10-fors and 25 five-wicket hauls, while he took 269 wickets at 33.35 in 236 ODIs.
“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,” he revealed.
Harbhajan further pointed out the unmatched support Dhoni enjoyed from the BCCI, than any other players in the team. “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,” he said.
“Every player wants to retire wearing the India jersey but luck will not always be on your side and sometimes what you wish for, doesn’t happen. The big names that you have taken like VVS (Laxman), Rahul (Dravid), Viru (Virender Sehwag), and many others who took retirement later didn’t get the chance,” Bhajji added.
Harbhajan also expressed his desire for a biopic to be made on his life. “I would like a film or a web series made on my life so that people can also know my side of the story, what kind of a guy I am, and what I do. Can’t say who would be the villain in my biopic. There is not one but many.” he concluded.
