Dhoni was speaking his mind: CAO Shetty
Shetty said he did not believe everything attributed to Dhoni was totally true and there must have been a difference in what he said and its interpretation by the media.
The BCCI on Thursday said One-Day International (ODI) skipper MS Dhoni "was just speaking his mind" on exclusion of senior cricketers from the team for the recently concluded CB series in Australia.
"Probably he is speaking his mind, his sentiments as a captain of the Indian team," BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Prof Ratnakar Shetty said after Dhoni was quoted by a website yesterday stating that he was clear in his mind about the players he wanted in the side, which left out Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly from the one-day team.
Shetty said he did not believe everything attributed to Dhoni was totally true and there must have been a difference in what he said and its interpretation by the media.
"I don't believe in what appears in the media totally because what Dhoni may have said and what was interpreted must have had a large difference," he said.
He also took a jibe on all those critical of the selection of youngsters especially after a good outing by the senior players in the test series Down Under.
"When the one-day team was announced everybody in India and including some senior cricketers had commented severely on the compositions of the team.
"Now the performance is there for everybody to see, naturally so he feels... Probably in his mind, that there is a message which he sends also becasue if he had not done well, he would have been crucified by the media for whatever decision taken," Shetty added.
Shetty said there would not be any case of hostility towards the one-day skipper by the senior players and said there were countries wherein there are two teams playing in the Tests and in the one-day squads.
"I don't think it will create bad blood because this is not something which is new. In other countries, there are people who are playing in the Tests and one-day (sides) separately and it has never created a problem. They are all professional cricketers and know their role well and what is expected from them when playing for India," he said.
On whether there would be a selection policy from the Board to give the captains a free hand in the selection process, he said the selection is done taking the captain's view into account "after all he is good to lead the team and whether the peformance good or bad, he will be taking the responsibility" and said there was no laid down format or a policy in this regard.
He said there are youngsters pushing the more experienced players for the top spots and are staking claim for the one-day format.
"In test cricket there are lot of seniors playing, there are lot of youngsters after the T20 World Cup who have pushed in to reckoning and naturally are staking claim for the one day team."
