Team India's Campaign Leaves Trail of Theories of Dhoni-Srikkanth Spat, Dhoni-BCCI Fallout

Team India have gone quickly to a low and into the concern books of their fans and cricket experts with the rigidity they have shown in the team selection. And while the BCCI is denying it, stories have been swirling that is all is not well with the Indian captain's equations within the cricket administration.

mahendra singh dhoni smiles during training

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian captain, is facing crossroads where he has a choice between sticking with the team picked for the crucial match against the West Indies or else, he can make a couple of changes in the hope to improve upon India's performance by picking Suresh Rain and Ravichandran Ashwin who have not had a match yet in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

The defeat to South Africa last Sunday has brought matters to the fore several issues including the question marks over why the selection policy is not flexible when India has options. Their persistence of Piyush Chawla despite the leg spinner unable to improve has raised several questions as also, the decision to keep with Ashish Nehra who looks out of his element.

As Dhoni and the team management sit down to plot strategy against the West Indies, there were reports in the media that Dhoni had a showdown of sorts with the chairman of selectors, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, over the selections which the BCCI has actually taken the trouble to come out and deny in a bid to squash those stories.

It is not as if team India needs the distraction of controversy as their situation in Group B even in the second spot under current standings is enough to ensure a quarterfinal spot, which is dependent on their winning the match outright or else having to depend on other results.

Dhoni has been a little self defeating at press conferences and post match presentations, as was pointed out earlier within this blog, admitting that India's fielding is not up to par and is not likely to improve greatly over the course of the tournament, an admission that could have been avoided in the media. Now questions are not only being asked about why Dhoni did not see reason to raise those concerns before and with the people in charge but also, of how the BCCI will react to the captain's blunt appraisal of problems with the Indian team.

It is entirely unclear if diktats about selections are coming from other than the team management in the dressing room. What is of particular importance is that the decisions arrived at are in the best interests of team India who started off as favourites but have exposed the vulnerability to poor execution of plans that could put that tag in serious peril.