Srinivasan's Decision Denied Kohli from Becoming the Captain in 2011: Former Selector

Srinivasan’s Decision Denied Kohli from Becoming the Captain in 2011: Former Selector: So finally there is a new twist in the tale about the possible efforts of sacking of MS Dhoni in 2011/12 season after Indian team had lost eight consecutive test matches on England and Australia tour. At that time, the five selectors had reached a boiling point where they had decided to make Virat Kohli as captain which was duly overturned by the BCCI Chairman Narayanaswami Srinivasan.

Former Indian selector Raja Venkat who was a part of selection committee from 2008-2012, has written a column in Bengali tabloid ‘Ebela’ and thereby confirmed that MS Dhoni was about to be sacked as captain before Srinivasan’s intervention.

Recalling that time in which Indian test cricket was in one of its all-time low state. The 56 year old said: “It was a four-Test series in Australia in 2011-12 and after India had lost the first three matches, we decided that a change of guard was necessary,” Venkat said.

“Mohinder Amarnath and Narendra Hirwani (then selectors from North Zone and Central Zone respectively) had accompanied the team Down Under and upon their return they reported that there were several factions within the team. Team spirit had hit rock bottom.

“We wanted someone who could restore unity in the team. Virat was our choice, for he was not into any faction and had also brilliantly led North Zone to the 2010-11 Deodhar Trophy title. Before that he had impressed as the captain of India Under-19 team.

“We had unanimously decided to bring in a new captain. We believed Dhoni’s time was up and Virat should take over. We had met to pick the squad for the ODI leg of the tour, but as per the BCCI constitution, we couldn’t announce the team for an overseas series without the president’s consent. Srinivasan just didn’t allow us to make the change and replace Dhoni,” Venkat added.

During 2011/12, Mohinder Amarnath was also totally against Dhoni continuing his tenure as captain. At that time Amarnath was considered as the top contender for the post of chief Indian selector but he was shown the exit door even from the selection panel itself. Many considered that it was due to his stark opposition to Srinivasan’s decision that he was removed from the prestige selection panel.

In 2012, Mohinder Amarnath in an interview with CNN-IBN had said: “The Board President did not approve the unanimous decision to replace Mahendra Singh Dhoni.” Why does Amarnath think Dhoni doesn’t deserve a place in the Test side? “If you see his track record for the last one year as captain, I am talking about Test matches, not one-day, he hasn’t done anything,” Amarnath said. “You give a run to a guy. I am not saying you should remove a guy overnight, but if you see a guy is failing again and again, I don’t think it is going to be possible to continue with the same guy.

He had also questioned the position of Indian selectors and had said: “My question is, you have a selection committee those who think what is best for Indian cricket then why they are not given a free hand.

Nowadays, Virat Kohli is the full time test skipper and the India’s tour of Bangladesh marked the advent of Kohli era in the longer format of the game. On which Venkat asserted: “Three years down the line, our decision has been vindicated. We wanted to make him (Kohli) India captain three years ago, but N Srinivasan played spoilsport . Virat is a terrific batsman, excellent team man and a fighter. He will help India unfold a new chapter.”

Meanwhile, it is notable that in the IPL spot-fixing saga, Supreme Court had found that N Srinivasan was guilty of conflict of interest as the BCCI President and the owner of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) franchise. After which he had to step down as BCCI President. MS Dhoni captains the CSK side and at a time had said that Meiyappan had nothing to do with cricketing affairs of CSK.
The Mudgal committe report indirectly had slammed Dhoni for owning a stake in player agencies and being an employee of India Cements, which owns the CSK franchise at that time as well.