NEW DELHI: Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday made himself “unavailable” for the Indian team’s tour of West Indies as speculations raged about his future.
SportzPower has been consistent in its view that Dhoni has political ambitions post retirement and news that the cricketing icon will be spending the better part of the next two months with the Parachute Regiment of the Territorial Army, in which he is an honorary lieutenant colonel, only lends further weight to that surmise.
“Dhoni has made himself unavailable for the tour of West Indies as he will be spending two months with his paramilitary regiment,” a top BCCI official told PTI. It does not take rocket science to figure out how the optics of that decision will play out in India’s hyper nationalistic news media rooms.
Dhoni, 38, intimated his decision to the BCCI ahead of the selection committee meeting on Sunday.
With Dhoni pulling out of the tour, Rishabh Pant is expected to be the first wicketkeeper in all three formats while Wriddhiman Saha will be Pant’s understudy in the Tests.
Dhoni’s announcement came even as his childhood friend and business partner Arun Pandey told PTI that the former Indian captain “has no immediate plans to retire”.
“He has no immediate plans to retire. The constant speculation over the future of a great player like him is unfortunate,” Pandey told the newswire.
It has been reported in the past that Dhoni might hang his boots up after the World Cup, but there has been no official communication from the player. However, his childhood coach Keshav Banerjee did say that Dhoni’s parents want him to end his international career.
Dhoni has made 350 appearances for the Indian team in the ODIs so far, and led the side to victory in the World Cup in 2011, and the Champions Trophy in 2013. He also captained India to T20 World Cup victory in 2007.
