On Sunday, the veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh on Sunday said that BCCI should allow Indian players to participate in foreign leagues. The veteran bowler urged the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to bring up a system/criteria through which players can apply for permission. Earlier, the veteran all-rounder Suresh Raina and his former teammate, Irfan Pathan had also said that BCCI should allow players to play in foreign leagues who are not on the radar to play international matches or at least 30 years old.
During a chat with Aakash Chopra on his Youtube channel, Harbhajan said, “I think BCCI should allow players to play in foreign leagues. You have to allow non-contracted players whom you are not looking to choose on the Indian side. You have to make a system that players who have played 50 Tests or are above 35 years will seek permission from the board.”
Talking about his last series in international cricket, the 417 wickets holder in Test cricket said things could have been different if someone talked to him before dropping him from the side.
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Bhajji elaborated, “I will always regret and things could have been handled better. Playing 100 Tests is a very big thing for any player and I was lucky enough that I’m one of them. I agree that my performance may dip a bit or I was not performing as expected but it could have been handled better. Nobody came to talk to me. I returned from West Indies with 400 scalps and dropped from the side and never picked again in the Test cricket.”
In his illustrious career, Harbhajan played 103 Tests, 236 ODIs, and 28 T20Is for Men in Blue. He scalped as many as 294 wickets in ODIs and T20Is. He played his last red-ball match against Sri Lanka in 2015 while his last ODI was against South Africa in the same year.
His last game for India was a T20I against UAE in the 2016 Asia Cup. Since then he was never got selected for the Indian team.
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Harbhajan concluded, “In the last ODI series that I played, I bagged six wickets despite we lose the series. After that, I never played for India. Players like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, VVS Laxman, and many more deserved better farewell. If we do not respect our players nobody will respect them outside. Whatever happened to me, I hope that does not happen to anyone else.”
