N Srinivasan on Monday (August 17) confessed that he had exercised all his authority as BCCI President to save MS Dhoni's captaincy in 2011.
Srinivasan’s comments came just a couple of days after Dhoni called time on his international cricket career through an Instagram post.
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It is pertinent to mention here that Dhoni's position had come under the scanner in 2011, following India’s 4-0 whitewash in the Test series in England and Australia.
In particular, the clean sweep down under made the national selectors contemplate appointing a new ODI captain for the subsequent tri-series involving Australia and Sri Lanka. This is when Srinivasan used his power to reject the selectors’ decision.
The BCCI constitution at the time stated that ‘every appointment had to be ratified by the board president’ and thus Srinivasan was within his rights to take a final call.
"This was 2011. India had won the World Cup. And [then] in Australia, we didn't do well in the Tests. So, one of the selectors wanted to remove Dhoni as the ODI captain," Srinivasan told The Indian Express. "The point is, how do you remove him as the ODI captain?
"He had won the World Cup [in April 2011]. The selectors had not even thought of who would be his replacement. There was a discussion and then [before the formal meeting] and I said there was no way in which he would not be a player [captain].
"In fact, it was a holiday. I was playing golf. I came back. Sanjay Jagdale was the [BCCI] secretary at that time and he said, 'Sir, they [selectors] are refusing to choose the captain. They will take him [Dhoni] in the team [as a player].' I came and said that MS Dhoni would be the captain. I exercised all my authority as the [BCCI] president."
Srinivasan's remarks only back up the claims that the ex-BCCI chief, who also happened to be the owner of the Dhoni-led IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, interfered to prevent a captaincy change.
There was also speculation that this also led to Mohinder Amarnath being dismissed as a selector when he was set to take over as chairman of the selection committee from Kris Srikkanth.
During the interview, Srinivasan also said Dhoni can play for CSK as long as he wants.
"He can play for CSK as long as he wants," he stated. "At present, let CSK win the IPL. One of the reasons for CSK's success under Dhoni is that he never thinks beyond the match. He never digresses. And we will follow the same policy now."
