IPL 2017: 5 reasons why MS Dhoni was replaced as captain of Rising Pune Supergiants

New Delhi: Cricket fans were in for a surprise when Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) removed MS Dhoni as captain of the team on Sunday, with Steve Smith announced his replacement.

This reason for this step as revealed by the owner of RPS, Sanjiv Goenka was that they wanted a younger captain to lead the team.

Though it seems a valid reason but, apparently, it was one of the many reasons behind MS Dhoni's sacking as skipper.

In an interview given to a Bengali daily, Sangbad Pratidin, the owner highlighted the following reasons behind his decision.

The team didn't perform well in the debut season, so he wanted someone to create winning possibilities, hence, Steve Smith was a good choice.

The World Cup winning captain was also not easily accessible and all communication had to go through his agent.

The ex-Indian skipper skipped most team meetings and used to take opposite decisions during the match.

The skipper also used to avoid attending net sessions and missed out tracking the growth of young players, including overseas player like Adam Zampa.

Dhoni is known to back young players, even when they fall out-of-form, hence did the same during his time at RPS. Dhoni also pushed in for various non-cricketing matters which the owners didn't like.

The cricketer from Jharkhand was informed about this decision over a meeting with the CEO in January and he accepted the decision.