'I am not married to him': Harbhajan Singh gives cheeky response, clears air on rumoured rift with MS Dhoni

Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh has gone on to make some startling revelations about his cricketing career ever since announcing his retirement from all forms of the game last year. Harbhajan had earlier claimed he was dropped from the Indian team without being given a valid reason by the then selectors.

On several occasions in the past, the former off-spinner has targeted the board and the ex-selectors while expressing his disappointment over not being selected in India's 2015 ODI World Cup squad. Harbhajan has also taken subtle digs at former India captain MS Dhoni, leading to speculations of a rift between the duo.

However, Harbhajan recently cleared the air on his relationship with Dhoni and said he never had problems with the former India skipper but the selectors and the BCCI. When asked what kind of relationship do the ex-India teammates share, Harbhajan came up with a cheeky response and said he is not married to Dhoni.

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"Very nice. I am not married to him (Dhoni)," Harbhajan told News18 in an interview.

Harbhajan had earlier pointed out the eleven players, who were part of the playing XI in the memorable final against Sri Lanka in the 2011 World Cup, never played together for India again. India had defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets in the epic final to lift the World Cup after a wait of 28 years at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

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Harbhajan questioned the reason behind the team not playing together in even one game post the 2011 World Cup-winning campaign and asked why only a few players from the World Cup-winning squad made it to the squad for the 2015 ODI World Cup.

"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?" said Harbhajan.

The former off-spinner cleared the air on his rumoured rift with Dhoni and said the former India captain is a 'good friend'. Harbhajan said he has no complaints against Dhoni but against BCCI, and the selectors who were responsible for the exclusion of a number of senior players from the team, including him.

"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," said Harbhajan.

"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," he explained.

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Harbhajan was part of India's 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup-winning teams under Dhoni and played an instrumental role in the team's success in both tournaments. Later in his career, Harbhajan also played under Dhoni forChennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

He was part of the CSK squad when the team won the 2018 IPL title and made it to the final in the 2019 edition.