Selectors wanted to sack MS Dhoni in 2012 but N Srinivasan put foot down, says former selector

Three years after the episode, Raja Venkat, a former first-class cricketer and a national selector from East Zone between 2008-2012, has detailed the dramatic events that saved Dhoni’s captaincy. He also revealed how the selectors had felt that the team spirit had hit “rock bottom” under Dhoni and there were “factions with the team” which prompted them to seek a change in leadership.

With Kohli taking charge as India’s full-time Test captain at Fatullah, Venkat did a recap. “It was a four-Test series in Australia in 2011-12 and after India had lost the first three matches, we decided that a change of guard was necessary,”Venkat wrote in his column for Bengali tabloid Ebela.

“Mohinder Amarnath and Narendra Hirwani (then selectors from North Zone and Central Zone respectively) had accompanied the team Down Under and upon their return they reported that there were several factions within the team. Team spirit had hit rock bottom. We wanted someone who could restore unity in the team. Virat was our choice, for he was not into any faction and had also brilliantly led North Zone to the 2010-11 Deodhar Trophy title. Before that he had impressed as the captain of India Under-19 team.”

The 2012 tour of Australia had not only thrown bad results — India were whitewashed 0-4 after they had already lost all the four Tests in England — but also gave raise to reports about factions within the team.

And so, the selectors met and passed an unanimous decision, Venkat recalled, to sack Dhoni. Amarnath, it has been reliably learnt, was very vocal in that meeting. He tore into Dhoni’s negative captaincy and reactive attitude. The former India batsman confirmed Venkat’s story, although he refused to give his own version or add anything to it. “You’ve to respect what he has written. I haven’t gone through it, but I hope details are there. For my part, I don’t want to add anything. I will say, when I’ve to say (about it),” Amarnath told The Indian Express.

When contacted by this paper, Venkat said: “We had unanimously decided to bring in a new captain. We believed Dhoni’s time was up and Virat should take over. We had met to pick the squad for the ODI leg of the tour, but as per the BCCI constitution, we couldn’t announce the team for an overseas series without the president’s consent. Srinivasan just didn’t allow us to make the change and replace Dhoni.”

The grapevine has it that Srinivasan was enjoying a round of golf when then BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale called him to inform about the selectors’ decision. Stunned, the board president asked Jagdale, who was the convenor of the meeting, to put the announcement on hold. Within half an hour he barged into the meeting room and made it clear to the selectors that status quo should remain. He refused to sign the team-sheet with Kohli as captain. The selectors had to backtrack to avoid a constitutional crisis. Going against Dhoni cost Amarnath dear, as he was summarily dismissed from the post at the following AGM. Jagdale, who resigned as BCCI secretary in the wake of the 2013 IPL spot-fixing gate, preferred to be tight-lipped on the ‘captaincy’ issue. “I don’t want to comment,” he said.

“Three years down the line, our decision has been vindicated,” Venkat wrote in his column. “We wanted to make him (Kohli) India captain three years ago, but N Srinivasan played spoilsport . Virat is a terrific batsman, excellent team man and a fighter. He will help India unfold a new chapter.”