The controversy related to Virat Kohli’s sacking from the post of the ODI captain will certainly continue as the chief selector of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Chetan Sharma has also spoken his side of the story and there are pretty good chances that reactions will come from the other side as well.
Earlier in an interview, the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly stated that he personally requested Virat Kohli to continue as the T20 captain but he didn’t listen to him. However later on in a virtual press conference, Virat Kohli denied all this and said that he was never asked to continue as the T20 skipper. In fact on the contrary, his decision of quitting captaincy from the T20 team was called a progressive step and it was taken in a quite good manner, as said by Virat.
Sourav Ganguly refused to make a comment on this and stated that the BCCI would look into the matter as he was in no mood to add more fuel to the fire. However, now Chetan Sharma has supported Ganguly and said that all the selectors asked Virat Kohli to rethink about it and asked him to talk about it after the T20 World Cup. Chetan Sharma chose to speak on this matter in the press conference which was called to announce the ODI squad for the South Africa series.
He said that in the meeting when Virat Kohli announced his decision, everybody was in a state of shock because the T20 World Cup was just nearby and such an announcement at that crucial moment would not do anything good for the Indian cricket. Chetan Sharma said that everyone present in the meeting requested Virat Kohli to continue as the skipper as it would have a negative effect on team India’s chances of winning the T20 World Cup and asked him to talk on this issue after the tournament but he chose to remain firm on his decision.
Chetan Sharma also says that there is no communication gap between the board and the captain or the players, whether of international level or domestic level. Talking about informing Virat Kohli that he would not lead India in ODIs 90 minutes before the official announcement, Chetan Sharma said that it was done in order to ensure that they both (Virat and Rohit Sharma) got enough time for preparing themselves and gel well too. The former Indian cricketer adds that we just can’t tell anyone in the middle of the series that he is not the skipper now and some other player will lead the team as it will take away focus from cricket.
After Chetan Sharma has opened on this matter and sided with the BCCI President, many former cricketers are of the opinion that Virat Kohli will soon react and some more mud-sling will take place now.
Virat Kohli is presently in South Africa where he is leading the Indian team in the 3-match test series against South Africa and team India has already scripted history by winning the first test of the series which was played at Centurion.
It will be interesting to see how Virat Kohli will react to it now. What do you think?
