Former Indian cricketer Yograj Singh blasted renowned captain MS Dhoni one more following the viral ‘Hookah’ issue involving Irfan Pathan. Over the past few days, Pathan’s 2020 interview, in which he accused Dhoni of bias in player selection, has taken over the internet.
After the 2012 season, when Dhoni led the team in all three forms, Pathan was dismissed from the Indian squad. Pathan was named Player of the Match in the final against Pakistan, but the two worked together to help India win the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa.
In an interview with Inside Sport, Yograj discussed the Dhoni-Pathan Hookah dispute, saying:
“It is not only about Irfan Pathan. You see Gautam Gambhir speaking about it. Virender Sehwag openly said about it as well. Harbhajan Singh spoke about how he was put out of the team like a fly. You should arrange a jury on why he did what he did. MS Dhoni doesn’t want to answer. One who doesn’t want to answer has a guilty conscience.”
Yograj Singh
Irfan Pathan played just three ODIs between 2009 and 2011 and was not a member of India’s 2011 ODI World Cup winning squad. However, he played 12 games in 2012 and established himself as a regular in the Indian ODI team before being permanently dropped.
“They have treated people like shit” – Yograj Singh
Yograj Singh would go on to criticize MS Dhoni and other famous cricketers like Kapil Dev and Bishan Singh Bedi on how they treated certain players. Besides guiding the Men in Blue to the 2013 Champions Trophy and the 2007 T20 World Cup, Dhoni and Kapil remain the only two Indian captains to be crowned the winners of ODI World Cup.
“I talk about Bishan Singh Bedi, Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni. I can talk about people whom I have been with. They have treated people like shit. Jo galat hai wo galat hai. Two wrongs cannot make one right. I say this openly, that our cricketers and team were destroyed by our captain,” said Yograj (via the aforementioned source).
MS Dhoni also guided India to the top of the Test rankings in the late 2000s and is still India’s most successful captain across formats, with 178 wins in 332 matches. Even though the 44-year-old retired from international cricket in 2019, he still plays in the IPL for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
