Dhoni clears air: No dissension in Indian dressing room

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni today asserted that there was neither any dissension nor any communication gap in the dressing room but conceded that such reports at times create a brief awkwardness among the players.

"If you listen to the press conference on tape, you would get the answer yourself as to what actually I said and what I meant," said Dhoni on the eve of the India-Australia tri-series match.

"You can't particularly see the same question, it might be a build up to the first question and often what we don't answer, because of the first part of the question we answer, it actually is the answer to the second or third question," added Dhoni in his typical long-winding manner.

Dhoni, while denying the reports of rift between Sehwag and him and asserting that the dressing room atmosphere was perfect, admitted it still caused uneasiness between the players.

"You feel a little awkward initially. You may sometimes think the person is actually believing (what's been reported). And the second person thinks may be he said it. But once you go through the talks, it gets back to as it was.

"It doesn't even by 10 per cent affect our performance or has any effect in the dressing room," insisted the captain.

The 30-year-old Dhoni defended Sehwag's assertion that he didn't need to clarify with his skipper on the comments that the seniors were slow in the field.

"He's right, why should he have a chat? If there's nothing why we need to have a chat. When we don't have a problem, why we need to solve it? There's nothing negative in it. He is a senior player. We don't need to clarify. We all have belief in each other as to what was said and what happened. It's not the first time it has happened.

... contd.

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