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Ever since Harbhajan Singh announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, he has become more vocal. India's former off-spinner has slammed a section of the BCCI for "ill-treatment" towards the players who won the 2011 World Cup and accused BCCI officials of "favouritism." Speaking on Backstage with Boria Majumdar, Singh said on the issue at length and alleged that the board cornered legends.
The recently retired off-spinner raised questions about excluding players from the squad after the 2011 World Cup win. "Players like Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who had vital contributions in the 2011 win, were eventually cornered after the ICC tournament. They all were removed one by one before the 2015 World Cup. And eventually, all of them were shown the exit door," Singh said.
Harbhajan also highlighted that the team which won the World Cup for the nation was told that they were not fit enough to play afterwords. Infuriated with the development, Singh slammed BCCI officials to favour a specific player section and ignored others.
Bhajji shared that few players were very well treated before the ICC tournament. Still, later they were completely thrown in the corners. "Why were they treated like 'Use and Throw'? It's a sad story of Indian cricket.," asked Harbhajan Singh.
Regarding the sad incident, Singh added that many people helped him till 2011 and they used to pull his leg jokingly, but after the tournament, they pulled his leg to throw him out of the squad altogether.
"I was 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."
Harbhajan Singh ended his career as India's third-highest wicket-taker in Tests and fifth-highest in ODIs. Notably, he only played 10 ODIs, 10 Tests, and six T20Is after the 2011 World Cup.
