India great Harbhajan Singh is all set to begin his new innings in IPL 2022 as a key member of the support staff in one of the high-profile franchises. The 41-year-old who retired a few weeks back, spoke to Cricketnext.com on a range of issues related to his career.
Excerpts:
Since you have retired from cricket, is captaincy is one thing you always wonder you missed out on in an otherwise very successful career? In the IPL also your candidature got any serious backing and never for the national team? No one ever seems to talks about your success of the Champions League trophy for Mumbai Indians.
Oh yes! That is also an achievement that no one talks about – my captaincy. I didn’t know anyone in the BCCI; someone who could push my case because it is required (for national captaincy). If you are not among the favourites of someone (powerful), you don’t get such honours. But, let’s leave that topic. I know I was capable enough (to lead) as we used to guide a lot of captains. No big deal if I was an India captain or not. No regrets either if I didn’t become the captain for my country. I was always happy to serve the nation as a player.
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You may not have got the captaincy, but you earned a lot of respect from some of your fiercest rivals like some of the top Australian players of your era. Especially, someone like Ricky Ponting who has gone on record saying that you were the most difficult bowler to face.
Ponting, (Matthew) Hayden are big players and when they say something about your game, it does feel nice. They won’t praise you for doing nothing. I must have done something special as a player. The Aussies used to be the boss team of our generation and it was always great to challenge and test yourself against the best.
In 2008, just before the IPL, I had asked Hayden in an interview whether his comment the ‘obnoxious little weed’ was something he regretted and he had agreed. Do you think that the IPL softened the animosity among the players in a big way or else the Australians could have been your jaani dushman (forever foe)!
(Laughs) I am not sure about the jaani dushman bit, but if trying to win matches for my country makes me a forever foe in the eyes of opponents then I am ready to become that, 200 times! Yes, IPL has changed the dynamic among the players in many ways because we spend close to 45-50 days together which is a lot. You do become friends and forget a lot of bitterness from the past. Nowadays, the rivals are enemies only on the ground; but during our playing days, we didn’t even speak to the Australians even in the hotel lobby. Such was the kind of heated clashes we had on the field.
During your playing days, many a times you were preferred over a great like Anil Kumble. And, yet we never heard any gossip or story about both of you having any kind of issues on such a sensitive topic?
I have the highest regard for Anil bhai. There has not been a bigger match winner than him as far as my cricket knowledge tells me. It has been an absolute privilege to play along with him. Yes, on many occasions I was chosen over him in the playing XI as was the case during the 2003 World Cup but I have never seen him worried (over such things). He never felt that why was I playing and not him. I will just say one little thing about him. He is ten times a better human being than he was a great bowler.
His contribution in my life is immense. He always used to guide me at every point, and used to tell me what is needed to be done by me.
But, did it make you face an awkward situation when you were preferred over him by the captains?
No, it wasn’t new for me. Whenever I used to get an opportunity to play my intent was always to not disappoint my captain or my team. Having said that, I can never be as good as, even the shadow of Kumble. What I tried was to leave my own little impression.
In Indian cricket, we often speak about exemplary behavior of Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni, but we hardly hear anyone saying learning from the Bhajji-Kumble relationship. Very rarely we hear that. A young player can learn how to keep one’s ego in check and think about team’s interests.
Then, you start doing that! (Start talking about that) Yes, the competitors in the team can be your friends as well. Both of them can think about each other’s good. The biggest reason for my success has been Kumble’s support and the role he played as a guide. If you have great communication amongst teammates, you can take your team to greater heights. You guys have seen that phase of Indian cricket closely and must speak about that. If Anil Bhai or me had any kind of issues, I wouldn’t have been successful. He was my hero and he will always be my hero.
And how about your rapport with MS Dhoni?
Very nice. I am not married to him!
There were some comments in recent times which attributed that you are still upset with your former captain?
See, everyone interprets a quote differently. I just wanted to convey that a lot of things could have been better post 2012. (Virender) Sehwag, me, Yuvraj (Singh), (Gautam) Gambhir could have retired playing for Indian team since all of them were active in IPL as well. It is ironical that the Champions of the 2011 team never played together again! Why? Only few of them played in 2015 World Cup, why?
That means you are upset with Dhoni?
No, not at all. I have no complaints against MS. In fact, he has been a good friend all these years. I have complaint to the BCCI, the sarkar (government) of that time. I call BCCI as sarkar. The selectors of that time didn’t do justice to their roles. They didn’t allow the team to be united. What was the point of bringing in new guys when the greats were still around and delivering? I once confronted the selectors on this and their reply was it wasn’t in their hands and then I asked why they are the selectors, then?
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