Sandeep Patil was India’s chief selector for four years. In that time his committee dropped some of the biggest names in Indian cricket — Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir among them. He has mostly stayed quiet about it. On YouTube Channel The Vicky Lalwani Show, he did not.
For years, Yuvraj Singh’s father Yograj Singh has publicly blamed MS Dhoni for his son being dropped from the Indian team. Patil chaired those selection meetings. He says Dhoni had nothing to do with it.
“Not once — not during selection meetings, not on tour, not during matches — did Mahendra Singh Dhoni say drop Yuvraj Singh. I am going on the record.”
Did Dhoni at least push back when the committee decided to drop Yuvraj?
“He had total confidence in the selection committee. He didn’t say anything.”
On Yograj’s anger, Patil said: “A father feeling strongly about his son is not wrong. But the blame is being placed in the wrong place.”
The Sachin Meeting
In late 2012, after a Test series loss to England in Nagpur, Patil and fellow selector Rajendra Singh Hans requested a meeting with Sachin Tendulkar. They first had to take formal permission from the Anti-Corruption Unit before doing so. When they sat down with him, Patil asked one question.
“What are your plans?”
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“He said, ‘Why?’ I told him the committee was looking for a replacement. He was shocked. He called me again — are you serious? I said yes.”
Patil is clear the committee never formally dropped Tendulkar or told him to retire. “Selectors can drop a player. Selectors cannot tell a player his career is over. We asked his plans. He said he wanted to continue. We said okay.”
Tendulkar eventually announced his own retirement and called Patil when he did. “Sandy, I’m announcing my retirement.”
When the Nagpur meeting became public, the backlash was severe. Patil remembers one headline — “Sachin Tendulkar bowled by Sandip Patil” — and laughs at it. “So I was such a great bowler that I took Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket?”
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He accepts some of the criticism. “I understand why people were angry. He is Sachin Tendulkar.” But he also points to what came after. “Shami came in. Bumrah came in. Ashwin, Jadeja, Rahane. Nobody talks about those picks. They only remember that we dropped Sachin.”
On Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir was dropped when Shikhar Dhawan came into the team. According to Patil, Gambhir has not spoken to him since.
“We have sat on the same television shows — News18, ABP — Gauti is there, I am there. He has never once looked at me. Not a glance. Every time I say hello, there is no response.”
The two were close before that. Gambhir used to call Patil almost every two weeks. When Patil was removed as coach years earlier, Gambhir had called to check on him. That is all gone now.
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“He doesn’t forget and he doesn’t forgive. That’s fine. I still respect him. I still like him.”
Patil notes that Laxman, Dravid and Ganguly all accepted their dropping and moved on quietly. Gambhir has not.
On Kohli and Kumble
On the falling out between Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble, Patil did not take sides. Instead he pointed to his own past.
“Whose fault was it? Both, perhaps. But where Anil Kumble went wrong is what I also tried to do when I was coach — trying to take control, rather than understanding the players and the system.”
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He says coaching senior, established players is completely different from coaching youngsters. If you get that wrong, you lose the dressing room.
Patil lost it too. “The board removed me after six months. And honestly, I felt that was the right decision. The reason they gave me? I failed to motivate the players.
(Quotes from Sandeep Patil’s interview with The Vicky Lalwani Show on YouTube)
