Team India denies Dhoni-Sehwag rift

Sydney: The manager of the touring Indian cricket team GS Walia denied any rift between captain MS Dhoni and vice-captain Virender Sehwag, saying that it was a misunderstanding, not a rift. 

It was expected that Dhoni and Sehwag would appear before the media in Sydney and scotch the reports of any rift in the team after BCCI had asked both to sort out the issues in the interest of the team. 

But they have avoided facing the media which was addressed by the manager of the Indian cricket team, GS Walia. 

While talking to the media, Walia said: “There were some misunderstandings between Dhoni and Sehwag regarding the selection of the team. But it was certainly not a rift.”

Earlier on Thursday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had come up strongly to sort out the differences between the captain and the vice-captain, MS Dhoni and Virender Sehwag, of the touring Indian cricket team.

It was learnt that board secretary Sanjay Jagdale had spoken to both the players as well as the other senior members of the team and asked them to sort out their differences as soon as possible. 

The board also asked the cricketers not to speak in public regarding the selection of the team. 

The cricketers were also asked to concentrate on cricket as it would help them keep their hopes alive of reaching the finals of the CB Series. 

Reports of dissensions surfaced mainly after the team management introduced the rotation policy for only three openers -- Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, a move which sparked off a heated debate on its merits
The first signs of the rift came into the open when Gambhir took a dig at Mahendra Singh Dhoni for not finishing the matches early enough with the skipper retorting that it was a matter of perception.

Dhoni then dropped a bombshell by publicly snubbing the fielding abilities of the three openers and said they were not being played together as they were slow fielders and could cost the team 20 extra runs.

But Sehwag countered his captain by saying that the seniors were never told that fielding was an issue when the rotation policy was introduced.

The verbal duel between the seniors, who have used the press conference to take jibes at each other, have not gone unnoticed by the media, which has constantly highlighted the poor performance of the players in what has turned out of a nightmarish tour of Australia.