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Cricket PlayersWhy were they treated like 'Use and Throw'?: Harbhajan Singh opens up on 'sad story of Indian cricket'
Harbhajan had 400 wickets in the bag at the age of 31 but was repeatedly overlooked and he eventually found himself out of the scheme of things.
Since his retirement last year, Harbhajan Singh has been quite vocal about his 23-year-long illustrious journey with the Indian team, which faced its fair share of ups and downs. The 41-year-old won two World Cups during his stint at the biggest stage and signed off with over 700 international wickets under his belt.
But the veteran off-spinner feels the Indian board could have shown a bit more empathy towards those who were a part of the 2011 World Cup contingent. Harbhajan, who last played for India in March 2016 in a T20 game against UAE, slammed the BCCI for favouritism and treating a set of players as a "use and throw" alternative, and further labelled it as a sad chapter in the history of Indian cricket.
"You also know what those officials were doing, what was happening in Indian cricket at that time and which section of people were playing, and how others were being ignored. If we were good enough to win the World Cup in 2011, why didn't we play even a single match together after that? Was that team good enough just to win the World Cup and became worse after that?" Harbhajan told veteran sports journalist Boria Majumdar on his YouTube show 'Backstage with Boria'.
Speaking about his unceremonious exit from the side, Harbhajan said it left him with many unanswered questions and recalled how people wanted to "throw" him out. He also cited the examples of Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir falling off the selectors' radar before the next ODI World Cup.
"Were 31-year-old Harbhajan Singh, 30-year-old Yuvraj Singh, 32-year-old Virender Sehwag, 29-year-old Gautam Gambhir who played in 2011, not good enough to play in the World Cup team of 2015? Why were they removed from the team one by one? Why were they treated like 'Use and Throw'? It's a sad story of Indian cricket. I don't know what's happening now but till 2011 a lot of people helped me, a lot of them pulled my leg. But after 2012 they pulled my leg to throw me out completely," he further added.
Harbhajan had 400 wickets in the bag at the age of 31 but was repeatedly overlooked and he eventually found himself out of the scheme of things. He managed to play just 26 games for India after the 2011 World Cup and the Turbanator said the BCCI officials and the then skipper had no answers to his expel.
"I was 31 in 2011 and had picked up 400 wickets. And a 31-year-old boy can't take 400 wickets overnight. He must have done something right. Yes, I have won a few games for India and I have done very bad in a few games too. That's the way the game goes.
"But if you call another player with 400 wickets a legend and here I am thrown out of the team without any explanation. No selector, no BCCI official is present to answer me, even the captain told me he didn't know what had happened. I still don't know what happened then. If you can treat such a big player like that then it shows that anything can happen with any player," he added.
