‘Why I was dropped’- Former India cricketer questions MS Dhoni for dropping him from the squad despite a decent run

Manoj Tiwary recently bid adieu to international cricket after serving Bengal for 19 years. He led the Bengal team for the one last time in their last league match in the current Ranji season. Despite being a crucial figure in the Bengal Ranji team and scoring heavily for them over close to two decades, he only played a handful of international matches for India.

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Manoj Tiwary only featured in 12 ODIs and 3 T20Is for India and was dropped from India’s ODI squad after scoring a century against West Indies. The prolific run-getter for Bengal was recently facilitated by the Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club for his achievements where he delved into his international career and questioned the former Indian captain MS Dhoni for dropping him from ODIs just after hitting a century.

While speaking at the felicitation ceremony he said, “I would like to ask Dhoni why I was dropped from the playing XI in 2011 after scoring a century? I had the potential to be a hero just like Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli but could not be. Today, when I see many people getting more opportunities on TV, I feel sad."

MS Dhoni was the captain of the Indian team when Manoj Tiwary was dropped from the Indian team. As they say, life is not fair, the same can be said in the case of Manoj Tiwary. While some players got extra backing from the captain and the coach others ran out of favour a bit early and Tiwary fell in the second bracket.

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Manoj Tiwary expressed concerns over the future of Ranji Trophy

Manoj Tiwary also expressed his concern over the lack of regard the current crop of cricketers showing towards the Ranji Trophy and how they are prioritizing IPL over the Ranji Trophy as a route to the Indian team. 

Tiwary said, “I can observe that young players have adopted an IPL-centric mindset,” Those who don’t play IPL often go to Dubai or other places whenever they find some free time. However, this trend is diminishing the significance of the prestigious Ranji Trophy. Now, expressing any opinion might lead to a ban. I have already been penalized with a 20 per cent reduction in my match fee for just one post."

Manoj Tiwary recently posted on social media asking the Ranji Trophy tournament to be scrapped while explaining the reason behind his post. He was fined 20% of his match fees for the post.