‘Didn’t know anyone in the BCCI’: Harbhajan Singh opens up on not being able to captain Team India

Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh has been critical of the BCCI since his retirement from all forms of cricket in December last year.

Just over a week after his retirement, Harbhajan, in an interaction with Zee News earlier in January, had blamed the BCCI and MS Dhoni for his ouster from Team India.

The right-arm off-break bowler has scalped 711 wickets in his 18-year international career that spanned from 1998 to 2016, but eventually fell out of favour in the second part of his career, when Ravichandran Ashwin was introduced to the international arena.

The 41-year-old has led Mumbai Indians (MI) to title victory in the now-defunct Champions League T20 in 2011, but that triumph hasn’t been talked about much. When asked in a recent interview if captaining India was one thing he missed out on, Harbhajan said part of the reason for that was he didn’t know anyone at the BCCI.

However, he went onto add that he didn’t have any regrets on not captaining India, and was happy to serve for India as a player.

“Oh yes! That is also an achievement that no one talks about — my captaincy. I didn’t know anyone in the BCCI; someone who could push my case because it is required (for national captaincy). If you are not among the favourites of someone (powerful), you don’t get such honours.

“But, let’s leave that topic. I know I was capable enough (to lead) as we used to guide a lot of captains. No big deal if I was an India captain or not. No regrets either if I didn’t become the captain for my country. I was always happy to serve the nation as a player,” Harbhajan told CricketNext.

Harbhajan named Australia legends Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden among players who have respected him the most.

“Ponting, (Matthew) Hayden are big players and when they say something about your game, it does feel nice. They won’t praise you for doing nothing. I must have done something special as a player. The Aussies used to be the boss team of our generation and it was always great to challenge and test yourself against the best,” the Jalandhar-born former cricketer added.

Sachin Tendulkar was the permanent skipper of MI in 2011 but Harbhajan led the team in Champions League in his absence. Bhajji was then named permanent MI skipper in 2012, taking over from Tendulkar, but relinquished captaincy before the 2013 edition.

According to CricketNext, Harbhajan Singh is set to become part of the support staff of one of the ‘high-profile franchises’ for IPL 2022.

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