Mohinder Amarnath: “”What has he done for the team in the last one year? The selection committee does not have guts to remove Dhoni.”” © AFP
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Players/Officials: Mohinder Amarnath | Kris Srikkanth | Dilip Vengsarkar
Series/Tournaments: England tour of India
Former India selectors, two of them part of the selection committee as recently as the World Twenty20 in September this year, have called for drastic changes to the team they themselves built, strongly criticising the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
Mohinder Amarnath, who was asked to leave the selection committee under speculation that he didn’t comply with the BCCI’s demands, has been the strongest voice in asking for Dhoni to be sacked. “Dhoni doesn’t find a place in the team,” Amarnath said. “What has he done for the team in the last one year? The selection committee does not have guts to remove Dhoni.”
Amarnath said he was not bitter about his removal from the selection panel. “I am not against Dhoni,” he said. “It is not that I do not like him. But we should look at it from a broader perspective. It is important to look at current performance of players rather than past performances.” Amarnath suggested a split captaincy as the alternative. “There is no harm in having different captains for different forms of the game,” he said. “I am impressed with Virat Kohli in the shorter version of the game. Gautam Gambhir could be a replacement for Dhoni in Tests.”
Kris Srikkanth, the chairman of the previous committee that was reluctant to make changes, has come out all guns blazing. Two days after saying Dhoni has lost control over things and that he is confused, Srikkanth has written in a column that the team needs to acknowledge failures, which is exactly what the previous selection committee headed by him didn’t do.
“Time has come for everyone to own up responsibility and stand up to be counted,” Srikkanth wrote. “It is also time to stop blaming the conditions for every reversal. A good team must perform in all conditions and not lend too much thought on things they have no control over.”
Dilip Vengsarkar, the chairman of selectors before the last committee took over, said there weren’t many options available. “We are struggling with options at present,” he said. “Some players are struggling with injuries. We do not have strong replacements for these players. The team members have to remove themselves from their comfort zone and perform well.”
