Former Indian cricketer and commentator Suresh Raina has disclosed that there was not enough communication between him and the selection committee when he announced his international retirement in August 2020.
Speaking to former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra on YouTube, Raina, who retired from international cricket at the age of 33, asserted that he passed the yo-yo fitness test and also scored runs in domestic cricket. However, he added that he couldn’t get any communication from the team management, which prompted him to bid adieu to the game.
“See, every captain has his own team. He obviously feels someone else is better. Yuvraj Singh and I failed the Yo-Yo test, but we cleared it. We played a lot of domestic too. Scored a lot of runs. I did speak to Anil bhai (then the coach), and he told me there were certain things I needed to do,” Raina said on Aakash Chopra’s YouTube channel.
“I was named Player of the Tournament in South Africa in T20Is. But in the 2019 World Cup, a different batter was preferred for England. A different keeper went there too. Back then, I felt that I could have done better,” he added.
Further, Raina clarified that players expect respect and basic clarity from the selection committee, adding that he couldn’t get a proper response from the other end despite asking too many questions.
“Players expect respect. The communication could have been better, such as what are the selectors thinking? What message is being given to them by them? But that’s not in our control. I asked plenty of questions, but didn’t get any answers. I spoke to both the captain and the coaches. But they did what they felt was right,” he concluded.
