Didn’t get the support I needed, says Harbhajan Singh as he speaks about his retirement

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, December 26

Former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh says he didn’t get the support he would have liked from Indian selectors.

Harbhajan, or Bhajji as he’s more popularly called, had been largely kept out of the India’s international teams since 2012, but opportunities really dried up in 2015, his last year of international games.

“There comes a time when you must give your players the respect they deserve,” the 41-year-old former off-spinner told Dainik Jagran in an interview. “But that’s the decision of a particular category of people. I would like to say that after 2001-02, the support that Sourav Ganguly gave to me, there was no such need for support, but in 2012, had I been supported, my career would have been better.”

He blamed selectors from dropping him from the team without giving him reasons. He says he’d even approached some selectors but got no response.

“You don’t get 400 wickets by bowling poorly. When a person is dropped without a reason even after he takes 400 wickets, several questions come to mind. I tried getting in touch with people, including selectors, but never got any response.”

“It’s always nice to have some support. If I’d got the support I needed at the right time, I would’ve retired much earlier after 500-550 wickets. I was 31 when I reached the 400-wicket mark. If I’d played 3-4 years more, I would’ve reached 500 wickets but that didn’t happen,” he said. “This is a sad story of Indian cricket. Someone who has achieved something doesn’t even get talked to properly when he’s no longer needed.”

After being out of the squad for 2.5 years, Harbhajan Singh’s career got a new lease of life in 2015,—he was part of the Indian test squad that toured Sri Lanka under Virat Kohli’s captaincy, replaced an injured Ashwin in the series against South Africa, was part of Indian T20 squad against Australia, played a home series against Sri Lanka and was part of India’s team for the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, where he played exactly one match, against the UAE.

The Sri Lanka Test even helped Harbhajan beat Pakistan’s Wasim Akram to become ninth highest wicket-taker in Tests.

Bhajji was also picked for India’s squad in the 2016 T20 World Cup but didn’t play at all.

Having got no call to return to the team since, he finally decided to hang up his boots on Friday.