New Delhi: Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to retire from Test cricket with immediate effect might have stunned a lot of people but BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel said that “it wasn’t taken in haste” and came after a lot of “soul searching and deliberations”.
Although Patel did not divulge details of his discussions with Dhoni, he did admit that he knew that Dhoni wanted to “quit one of the formats” in order to concentrate on remaining two formats.
“MS is a very practical man. Today, he called up just after the Test match in Melbourne and told me that he wanted to retire from Test cricket. I asked him “what happened are you injured or what?” He just calmly told me “No, I just want to quit Test cricket for good,”. He is an Indian captain and a distinguished cricketer. It’s his personal choice and I needed to respect that,” Patel told PTI.
“I asked him,”Is it your final decision and he told me “Please wait a bit as I want to inform the boys about my decision and then you can make an official announcement. He duly called up and told me that I have informed the boys and you can go ahead. I also contacted chairman of selectors Sandeep (Patil) and Shivlal Yadav. Both felt that we should respect Dhoni’s decision,” the BCCI secretary said revealing the turn of events. (PTI)
