It is the duty of the selectors to inform MS Dhoni before they drop him, says Virender Sehwag

07/19/2019

Virender Sehwag has come out saying the Indian selectors should leave the decision of when to retire to MS Dhoni, but must reach out and inform him prior to dropping him from the squad for the West Indies tour. Sehwag still rues the way the selectors handled his dropping from the team in 2013.

The retirement of India’s second World Cup winning captain is the prime topic of concern for Indian cricket fans at the moment. However, Sehwag, and a host of other former cricketers believe that it should left to Dhoni’s individual decision. But he raised another issue that was poorly dealt with during his final playing days.

“It should be left to M. S. Dhoni to decide when to hang his boots. The duty of the selectors is to reach out to Dhoni and inform him that he is no more being seen as India’s wicket-keeper batsman going forward. I wish the selectors had asked me as well about my plans,” Sehwag said during a panel discussion on a news channel, reported PTI.

Sehwag targeted his co-panellist, Sandeep Patil, with the remark. Patil was the chairman of selectors when Sehwag was dropped from the side in 2013 and he never made a comeback. However, Patil immediately apologised to Sehwag on national television.

“The responsibility to talk to Sachin (Tendulkar) about his future was given to me and Rajinder Singh Hans while the same responsibility was given to Vicky (Vikram Rathour) for Sehwag. We had asked him and he said he had spoken with Sehwag. But if Sehwag is saying that Vikram did not talk to him, I would like to take responsibility for the same,” Patil said.

Sehwag was quick to give a sharp response, noting that informing the player after the squad is announced did not make sense.

“Vikram spoke to me after I was dropped. It would have made sense if he spoke to me before that. There’s no point talking to a cricketer once he is dropped. If M.S.K. Prasad speaks to Dhoni after he is dropped, what would Dhoni say — that he would play first-class cricket and the selectors should pick him if he scores runs. The point is that the selectors should reach out to cricketers before they are dropped,” Sehwag added.

However, the only other Indian captain to lift the World Cup trophy, Kapil Dev doesn’t agree with Sehwag.

“I don’t think that a selector speaks to the player when he is picked and so I don’t see why he needs to be told that he will be dropped,” he said.