BCCI is responsible for resting players

Mahendra Singh Dhoni was given permission by the Indian board to opt out of the Sri Lanka Tests starting this month. In the Hindustan Times Sunil Gavaskar remembers the time in the late 70s when as captain his request for a West Indies tour to be postponed by a week was flatly refused by the BCCI. When he announced his decision to opt out of the tour and step down as captain, there was a furore and plenty of criticism.

I approached the then-BCCI president and asked if the departure to the Caribbean could be delayed. The president flatly refused after I explained the reasons. Instead he said there were 5000 players waiting to play for India.