"That Is Not His Job": Harbhajan Singh's Blunt Take On BCCI's Diktat Involving Gautam Gambhir

Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh on Friday asserted that the BCCI's 10-point policy for its centrally-contracted players has actually been in place since his playing days and wanted to know when was it "altered" and by whom. Terming the guidelines "fresh documentation", Harbhajan said the move diverts attention from the team's forgettable on-field performance against New Zealand and Australia recently. Days after the 1-3 defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the BCCI has come up with a 10-point diktat to promote "discipline and unity", making domestic cricket mandatory, imposing restriction on the presence of families and personal staff on tours and banning individual commercial endorsements during series.

To Harbhajan, all these measures seemed like old wine in a new bottle.

"Let me first put this on record. When I was reading the travel policy document reported by the media, I hardly found anything new from the last time I represented India as a centrally-contracted cricketer," Harbhajan told PTI during an interaction.

"At least nine out of 10 points, including duration of family visits, staying in same hotel, practice timings, all are same. My question is if these rules were in place during my time, who all have altered it and when? That should be probed," Harbhajan, who has 700 plus international wickets across formats, said.

The same assertion was also made by one of Harbhajan's former India teammate Irfan Pathan.

For Harbhajan, what is certainly not funny is the timing of issuing these guidelines as he feels the discussion should have been strictly on cricket only.

"Hum log mudde se bhatak rahein hain (We are deviating from the main issue). We didn't lose 1-3 because wives and partners were there for two