NEW DELHI: Blaming Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the apparent ‘rift’ in the Indian cricket team in Australia, former captain Bishan Singh Bedi on Sunday said that time has now come for the side to have a new Test skipper.
Bedi felt that Dhoni had failed to maintain harmony in the Indian team in Australia by stating that the three senior openers could not be in the team together as they were slow fielders.
Asked if Dhoni should be removed from Test captaincy, Bedi said, “This is the job of selectors and I don’t wish to pressurise them. But personally speaking Dhoni might have his day. I think there is definitely room for a new Test captain.
“To a certain extent, the dissensions in the team in Australia have undermined his captaincy. He (Dhoni) created it (dissension) by himself. He was the first one to speak to the media,” Bedi said.
“Most definitely things have gone out of control of Dhoni and so he should be replaced,” he added.
Asked if Dhoni leadership was found wanting in Australia, Bedi said, “Dhoni was struggling as a leader. A leader’s job is to keep the team together and not to allow drift among players in different directions. He did not show the leadership which was desired.
“He (Dhoni) should not have made those negative comments (of senior players being slow fielders). Not at all. The same thing (Virender) Sehwag did after Dhoni. Two wrongs do not make one right and the boys, especially the youngsters, were all over the place,” said Bedi.
“But there are too many conflicting interests here. Dhoni plays for Chennai Super Kings in IPL, a team owned by BCCI President and chief selector as a brand ambassador,” he said.
“I am not exonerating players or coach or anybody. BCCI to my mind is far too laidback. How can an amateur set up run a professional game? How can you have honorary secretary, honorary treasurer and honorary president to look after professional players like Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid,” Bedi said.
“The BCCI is unequipped and unaccountable and that is the worst part. For example we have an absolute incompetent media manager in Australia. The criteria for him to be sent as media manager to my mind was that he has collected lots of proxies for his masters at Punjab Cricket Association. Incompetent is not the word but he is the most inefficient to have come across,” he added. (PTI)
