Media got it all wrong: Dhoni

Skipper plays down talk of rift

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday downplayed reports of rift and miscommunication in the team. 

“I don’t know where it (reports) came from. There is nothing like that. Let’s stick to cricket because that’s what is really important,” Dhoni told reporters. 

Dhoni and Virender Sehwag had expressed different views on the rotation policy in press conferences. While Sehwag had said that the senior players were informed that the rotation policy was adopted to give more chances to young players in the side, his view didn’t match with Dhoni’s.

Dhoni had earlier said that the rotation policy was put in place because the three seniors – Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir – couldn’t be picked together for they would concede 20 extra runs in the field. The Jharkhandi said the senior players were safe but slow fielders, and the massive Australian grounds could further reduce their effectiveness. 

But Dhoni referred to it as a slip of the media “You must have asked him (Sehwag) something. You have the press conference in tape. You will get the answer yourself (if you listen) what exactly I said, and what exactly I meant.” 

Asked whether he had a reconciliatory chat with Sehwag, Dhoni said there was no need for one. “If there’s nothing, why do we need to have a chat? If there is no problem, then why do we need to solve it?

“He is a senior player. We don’t need to clarify. We all have belief in each other, as to what was said and what happened. It’s not the first time such a thing has happened. We try to get the positives out of it. It has paved way for half an hour of good talk in the dressing room, because that’s the best we can get out of it.” 

Dhoni also ruled out a repeat of the show of unity the Indian team put during the 2009 Word T20 in England. “It was not projected in a nice way. What I thought was there were 15 players, and it would be really nice to ask okay, A is fighting with B, so both of them are standing here. And ask that particular player what is the reason. It was not projected in that way. So I thought, leave it, and what’s the point in fuelling something that’s not there,” he said. 

Dhoni said the rift reports had not affected the team’s morale. “Yes, you feel a bit awkward initially…you may at times feel that maybe the person is believing (what is being reported), and the second person thinks maybe he has said it. 

“Once you get through the talks and everything happens, it gets back to as smooth as it was. It has not even 10 percent affected our way of performing or has any impact on the dressing-room atmosphere,” he said. 

Dhoni said communication between team members had remained strong despite the reports. “It has always been there. It has been perfect. When things like this happen, it’s the talk of the dressing room.”