The Hindu : Sport : Dhoni exasperated with reports on his ‘quitting’

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Dhoni exasperated with reports on his ‘quitting’

Principal Correspondent

— Photo: K.R. Deepak

M.S. Dhoni.

Bangalore: On a day when speculations over M.S. Dhoni ‘threatening to quit the captaincy’ did the rounds on the news wires, the Indian captain, with a touch of exasperation, said: “Speculations are good. It is unfortunate that things that happen in a selection committee meeting often get into the media. It is disgusting. I strongly believe that if a comment has to come out of a selection committee meeting, it has to come from the BCCI and the chief selector. I am not going to comment whether anything happened or not.”

Dhoni lashed out at the ‘sources’ who leak privileged information into the media circles. And when a scribe told him that he had got the information about Dhoni’s ‘threat to quit’ over the phone from his source, the Indian captain retorted: “Please tell me who this person (source) is? You will be doing a service to Indian cricket by identifying this person. Things like this have been happening for too long in Indian cricket and it is not good for the team and the players.”

The rumours over Dhoni’s ‘quit threat’ started gaining momentum after the selection committee meeting at Kanpur in which the team for the ODIs at Bangalore and Cuttack were selected. Dhoni was allegedly miffed when R.P. Singh was dropped.

Affecting trust

Dhoni stressed that these leaks from the committee room can affect the trust that binds a team.

“I wouldn’t say that my team has possibly the most outstanding talent but I would say that over the last year it has become an outstanding team and these issues can affect the trust between players.

“It is important for me to make R.P. Singh realise that I never went out of my way to defend him and also ensure that Irfan Pathan does not think that I did not want him. Luckily for me the players trust me,” Dhoni said.

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