- Tuesday, April 16, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
BOARD of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly on Thursday (16) refused to make a remark on the explosive claims made by India Test captain Virat Kohli over white-ball captaincy on the eve of the Test squad’s departure for South Africa. He said the board will handle the matter.
“I have no comments, leave it with the BCCI, we will deal with it,” Ganguly, a former India captain himself, told reporters in his hometown Kolkata.
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Kohli contradicted Ganguly on at least two issues during his virtual press conference on Wednesday (15). One of his claims was that the BCCI had accepted his decision to quit captaincy in the T20 format. According to Ganguly, he had requested the ace batter to not give up T20 captaincy.
Am available for South Africa one-day series: Kohli
Kohli also said that he was informed about his removal as the captain in the one-day format just an hour and half before the Test squad for South Africa was chosen last week.
“It’s a call that the BCCI and the selectors took together. Actually, the BCCI had requested Virat to not step down as the T20I skipper but obviously, he did not agree. And the selectors then did not feel it right to have two different captains for two white-ball formats,” Ganguly had told Asian News International.
“So it was decided that Virat will continue as Test captain and Rohit will take over as the white-ball captain. I as president personally spoke to Virat Kohli and the chairman of selectors has also spoken to him,” the BCCI chief said.
On Wednesday, Kohli said, “Whatever was said about the communication that happened during the decision that was made was inaccurate. I was contacted one and half hours before the selection meeting on 8th for the Test series.”
“And there was no prior communication with me since I announced the T20I captaincy decision up till December 8. The chief selector discussed the Test team to which we both agreed. Before ending the call, I was told the five selectors decided that I would not be told that I will not be ODI captain. Which I replied ‘okay fine’. And in the selection call afterwards, we chatted about it briefly. This is what happened, there was no communication prior to that at all,” he added.
When Kohli was asked about the T20I captaincy claim, he said: “When I communicated with the BCCI first about quitting the T20I captaincy, I told them that this is my point of view, these are the reasons for my decision. It was received quite well. No one took offence, no one had any hesitation. No one told me that I should not leave the T20I captaincy.
“It was received well and looked at as a progressive step and one in the right direction. That time, I told the BCCI that I wanted to continue as ODI and Test captain unless the BCCI office-bearers or the selectors wanted me not to do so. I clarified this as well in the phone call. My communication with the BCCI was very clear. I also gave them the option that if the BCCI office-bearers of the selectors want to make a decision, I am okay with it,” he added.
