'7 Careers Ruined, Dhoni To Be Sacked...': Yograj Exposes Ex-BCCI Selectors

After winning the 2011 World Cup, India went through a tumultuous transition phase over the next two years, getting whitewashed 0-4 in away Test series against England and Australia. These defeats saw a number of Indian stalwarts getting dropped from the Indian team. The selectors had even unanimously decided that MS Dhoni would be sacked as captain, with former India all-rounder Mohinder Amarnath one of the key figures of the selection committee then. Reflecting on that episode, Yograj Singh, the father of former India star Yuvraj Singh, has brutally criticised Amarnath and co.

"You (BCCI selectors) just destroyed these boys for no reason. Boys like Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Mohammed Kaif, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid. You just made them go after 2011," Yograj said, speaking to InsideSport.

"You just destroyed the team after the 2011 World Cup. The careers of 7 players were put into the gutter. That is why were struggling," Yograj added.

The high-profile series defeats to England and Australia saw the likes of Gambhir, Yuvraj, Zaheer and Harbhajan slowly phased away from the national team. On the other hand, Dravid and Laxman called time on their illustrious Test careers.

Despite being crucial members of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad, Gambhir, Yuvraj, Zaheer and Harbhajan were all completely out of the picture for the ODI team by the time the 2015 World Cup came around.

Yograj called out Amarnath for the mishandling of those players and their careers at that point in time.

"We lost five series when MS Dhoni was the captain and he was told he would be replaced by Mohinder Amarnath, but that's not the way to do it," Yograj said.

Amarnath had earlier said that Dhoni was all set to be replaced as captain following the whitewashes, but his sacking had been blocked by then-BCCI President N. Srinivasan.

"When you respect a person you don't ask questions. But my question is, if you have a selection committee who think what is best for Indian cricket, then why are they not given a free hand?" Amarnath had told CNN-IBN in 2012.

Amarnath's tenure in the BCCI selection committee lasted only for about a year.

As it turned out, Dhoni went on to captain the Test team till his retirement from the longest format in late 2014. His stint as captain in the shorter formats went on till January 2017, before the baton was passed on to Virat Kohli.

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