Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary has alleged that legendary captain MS Dhoni practiced favouritism during his tenure. Tiwary who made his India debut under Dhoni in Australia in 2008 represented the country in 12 ODIs and 3 T20Is. According to him he never received any support from Dhoni. While injuries did impact his career Tiwary feels Dhonirsquos preference for a couple of other players played a major role in cutting short his international run. Tiwary last featured for India in an ODI against Zimbabwe in 2015 when Ajinkya Rahane was leading a second-string squad in the absence of Dhoni and other senior players. Despite scoring his maiden ODI century against the West Indies Tiwary was dropped from the XI without explanation. On his return to the side during the Sri Lanka series he won the Player of the Match award for a four-wicket haul and followed it up with a half-century in the very next gamemdashyet he was again sidelined. When asked why he vanished from the playing XI after such performances Tiwary said quotThat is something only MS Dhoni Duncan Fletcher and the selectors can answer. To this day I havenrsquot received any explanation.quot He added that if he ever comes face to face with Dhoni he would directly ask him the reason. quotI was never the kind to call up coaches selectors or captains to question them. But Irsquove always said that if I meet MS Dhoni Irsquoll definitely ask him why I was left out after scoring a century. Till today I have no idea what went wrong or what their thought process was. Only those making the decisions back then can answer thatquot he said. Many cricketers have credited Dhoni for backing young players both in Team India and later at Chennai Super Kings. Tiwary however feels he was not one of those who benefited. quotNo I donrsquot think so. Reputation and perception are one thing but I can only speak from my personal experience. There are others too who saw that period differently. If Dhoni truly backed players based on performance then I should have been supported. I came back into the XI picked up four wickets against Sri Lanka scored some runs and then made 65 in the next game. But after that I was again dropped. Performance was supposed to be the ultimate criterion but in my case it wasnrsquot. I canrsquot say for others but I was not backedquot he explained. Tiwary went on to say that Dhoni simply did not like him. quotEveryone admires MS Dhoni and I also acknowledge that his leadership qualities were exceptional. But in my case I feel he didnrsquot like me. Thatrsquos the only explanation I can give. I believe there were a couple of individuals he was very fond of and they received his full backing. Many know this though not everyone talks about it openly. Strong likes and dislikes exist in cricket everywhere. Unfortunately I fell into the lsquodislikedrsquo categoryquot the Bengal veteran remarked.