One of the greatest captains in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Rohit Sharma was removed as the man at the helm of affairs by the franchise in December last year. Rohit, it was announced, would be replaced by Hardik Pandya as the captain moving forward. Under Rohit's captaincy, MI had won a record five titles and the national team had just come back after a fabulous run in the ODI World Cup 2023 where the team had fell short in the final in what was otherwise a near-perfect campaign.
Explaining the team's decision in an interview, Mumbai head coach Mark Boucher said that it was a cricketing decision and fans should not get emotional about it. He went on to say that the decision will bring the best out of Rohit as a player.
"I was purely a cricketing decision. We had a chance to bring back Hardik and we capitalized on it. Mumbai Indians are going through a transition phase as far as captaincy is concerned. A lot of fans don’t understand in India and tend to get emotional. You as a team has to take emotions away. It is going to bring the best out of Rohit Sharma as a person and as a player. Let him go out and score good runs for the franchise," Boucher said on Smash Sports podcast.
A Lot Of Emphasis Not On Cricket In IPL: Mark Boucher
In a statement that raised quite a few eyebrows, Boucher said that a lot of focus is on things other than cricket like advertising in the IPL.
"I mean one of the things I have spoken about is when you arrive at the IPL and he (Chris Morris) will be able to tell you as well that there’s a lot of stuff going on, there’s photoshoots and this and that and a lot of emphasis is not actually on the cricket. It’s more about the advertising and all that sort of stuff," Boucher said.
A day after the interview was released, Rohit's wife Ritika Sajdeh took to Instagram to share a comment on it. She wrote: "So many things wrong with this...". Her reaction has instantly gone viral on social media.