5 Major controversies involving Indian Team Captains

Captaining the Indian national cricket side is one of the toughest jobs in the world. The role requires shouldering the hopes and expectations of more than a billion people. While the Indian captains command great respect and popularity, there are times when the pressure of work outweighs their ability to manage and it creates some friction around them.

Many Indian team captains have been involved in controversies. Let’s look at five such controversies involving Indian Team captains.

Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid (Image source: Twitter)

Rahul Dravid has been an epitome of a graceful cricketer. One instance from his captaincy stint however that remains unanswered and controversial is from Multan Test against Pakistan in 2004.

The game is mostly remembered for Virender Sehwag’s 309 but another instance that often keeps cropping up from time to time was Sachin Tendulkar’s 194* innings. Dravid faced a lot of flak for declaring the Indian innings when Sachin was batting just six runs shy of a double century. There was a lot of furor over Dravid’s decision and many claimed a fallout between the two Indian greats.

MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni (Image source: Twitter)

MS Dhoni is arguably the most successful Indian captain to ever grace the pitch. The Ranchi-born took the India side to ODI World Cup, T20I World Cup, Champions Trophy and multiple series wins in his career.

Dhoni was however also involved in controversy as Indian captain; the biggest of which was his alleged fallout with the senior players in the team. Many reports suggest that the young captain was the reason behind Ganguly and Dravid’s exclusion from the ODI team for the CB series in Australia. Ahead of the 2009 T20I World Cup, many reports also came of a rift between him and Virender Sehwag. As many former cricketers were eased out of the team following DHoni’s appointment as captain, many still believe the reports of the rift to be true.

Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli (Image source: Twitter)

Virat Kohli enjoys unrivaled popularity as an Indian cricketer. The former captain injected aggression into the Indian side and led the team to the top of the World rankings.

Kohli however was involved in an ugly tussle with the Indian Cricket Board towards the end of his captaincy stint. The Delhi born was removed from the captaincy post in 20-20 format as well as ODI in December 2021 and later stepped down from Test captaincy. The 33-year-old however said that he wasn’t informed about being replaced as ODI captain by the Indian Cricket Board and it created a lot of controversy with people calling out the board for disrespecting a player who gave his all to Indian cricket.

The controversy around Kohli’s captaincy is still afresh with shades being thrown from both sides from time to time.

Saurav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly (Image source: Twitter)

Saurav Ganguly created a strong Indian side under his leadership. The Men in Blue reached the final of the 2003 World Cup but lost to a strong Australia side.

Towards the end of his career, however, Sourav Ganguly was involved in ugly infighting in the Indian Cricket team in late 2005. The dispute between him and newly appointed head coach Greg Chappel turned ugly when Ganguly was forced out of the team and stripped of the captaincy. This decision stirred up strong emotions in the country, ranging from street protests to speeches in the Indian parliament. Ganguly was later called into the team and Chappel had to depart following one of the biggest controversies surrounding Indian captains.

Mohammad Azharuddin

Mohammad Azharuddin (Image source: Twitter)

The biggest controversy that involves an Indian captain is hands down, Mohammad Azharuddin’s match-fixing scandal in 2000. The scandal took place when Hansie Cronje-led South Africa side visited India for an ODI series. After CBI found Cronje talking to bookies from tapped phones, he was called upon and confessed to having been introduced to bookies by Azharuddin.

Reportedly Mohammad Azharuddin confessed to fixing matches in November 2000 and also taking South Africa captain Hansie Cronje to the bookies. Both Azharuddin and Cronje along with Ajay Jadeja were banned for life following the ugly controversy. Although the Andhra Pradesh Court lifted the life ban in 2012 terming it as ‘unsustainable’, the Azharudding max fixing scandal remains a dark spot on Indian Cricket.

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