- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
REACTIONS have poured in thick and fast after India Test captain Virat Kohli addressed a number of speculations over his alleged differences with Rohit Sharma, the newly appointed India captain in one-day and T20 internationals, and the Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI).
Former India captains Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev have also expressed their respective viewpoints on the controversy centred around the claim that Kohli was unjustly removed from the captaincy in the 50-over format. The speculation over the alleged differences became more after Kohli made statements that were not in tune with what the board leadership said.
Gavaskar said BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is the best person to clear the air on Kohli’s contradictory statement on the issue of captaincy, saying he “surely should be asked” how the difference in perception arose.
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Days after Kohli stepped down from the national T20 captaincy, Ganguly said the board has asked him to reconsider the decision. But Kohli contradicted the statement in an explosive virtual press conference on the eve of the departure of the national team for South Africa saying he was never asked to reconsider his decision and that the BCCI had well-received his call.
Am available for South Africa one-day series: Kohli
Kohli also said in the conference that he was told about his removal as the 50-over captain by chairman of selectors Chetan Sharma only half an hour before the Test squad for the upcoming series in South Africa was announced last week.
“I think it (Kohli’s comment) actually doesn’t bring the BCCI into the picture. I think it’s the individual who has to be asked where he got the impression he had conveyed such a message to Kohli. So, that’s the only thing,” Gavaskar, 72, told India Today.
“Yes, he (Ganguly) is the BCCI president and surely he should be asked why there is this discrepancy. He is probably the best person to ask about the discrepancy in what you seem to have to say and what the Indian captain has said,” the batting legend said.
Gavaskar though did not feel there was anything wrong on part of Sharma to inform Kohli about his removal from the one-day captaincy on a short notice.
“What is the controversy here. As long as the chairman of selectors had told him clearly that we are not considering you for ODI captaincy now, that’s perfectly fine. It is the selectors who have complete authority is selection committee meetings. The captain is just a co-opted non-voting member,” he said.
“As long as it’s not something that he (Kohli) has not found out from the media or as it happened in the past that the commander of a passenger flight announced it. I think he has been told by the chairman of the selection committee that he is not going to be the captain, I think that is absolutely okay.
“I don’t know what these people wanted to do. As long as there has been communication between the chairman of selection committee and him, it’s the decent thing to do,” he said.
Gavaskar also said that it is time the BCCI starts clear channels of communication to avoid any such fiasco in future.
“Yes, it always helps to have a clear line of communication so that there is no speculation. So from now, from what has happened, there should be a clear line of communication and the chairman of the selection committee can come down and say why he has been picked and why he has not been picked.
“Sometimes, even if that is not needed, a press release is also good enough. A good press release giving all the reasons makes life a lot easier,” he said.
Dev, who captained India to their first World Cup win in the one-day format, was less impressed with Kohli. He felt the Test captain’s statements that exposed his differences with the board on captaincy were ill-timed as they created an unsavoury controversy just ahead of the crucial tour of South Africa.
“It is not good to point fingers on anybody at this point in time. The South Africa tour is coming and please pay attention to the tour,” Dev told India’s ABP News when asked about Kohli’s remarks.
“I would say board president is board president but yes the Indian cricket team captain is also a big thing. But talking badly about each other in public, I don’t think it is a good thing, whether it is Sourav or Kohli,” the 62-year-old iconic all-rounder said.
Urging Kohli to take control of the situation and think about the country, he said, “Aap situation ko control kijiye, behtar ye hai ki aap desh ke baare mein sochiye (Please control the situation and it’s better to think about the country now.”
“Jo galat hai woh kal pata chal hi jayega (what went wrong will eventually be known) but I don’t think it is right to stoke a controversy before a tour,” Dev, who was part of India’s first-ever team which played in South Africa in 1992, said.
The India Test squad led by Kohli left for South African shores on Thursday for a three-match series kicking off in Centurion on December 26.
Limited-over skipper Sharma, who was picked as the vice-captain of the Test squad, was ruled out of the series recently due to a hamstring injury during a practice session.
India have never won a Test series in South Africa.
