Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has come down hard on BCCI officials of a decade back for not allowing the players who won the 2011 World Cup for India, to play one more tournament in the 2015 edition.
He also accused them of promoting favoritism and also for sabotaging his as well as the careers of other players who were part of India’s historic 2011 World Cup win, which came over Sri Lanka in the final on April 2.
The former off-spinner also wondered why the star performers of the 2011 edition Yuvraj Singh, who was adjudged the Player of the Tournament, and Gautam Gambhir, who had top-scored in the final, Virender Sehwag and himself were not considered for the ICC World Cup 2015 which was played in Australia and New Zealand.
“I didn’t know anyone in the BCCI”, Harbhajan Singh on not getting a chance to lead India
“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?” Harbhajan Singh said on ‘Backstage with Boria.’
Harbhajan Singh further added that despite being young in 2011, players like himself, Sehwag, Yuvraj, and Gambhir were treated as use and throw by the BCCI officials.
“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 added.
Virender Sehwag retired from cricket in 2015, Gambhir followed suit in 2018. Yuvraj Singh announced his retirement in 2019 and Harbhajan Singh called time on his career in 2021.
