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Sunil Gavaskar Wants Sourav Ganguly to Clear Air After Virat Kohli’s Controversial Press Conference, Feels BCCI Selectors Could’ve Handled Team India Captaincy Row Better
In an explosive press conference on Wednesday, India Test captain Kohli contradicted BCCI president Ganguly's statement regarding the T20I captaincy.
15 December 2021 • 11:20 PM
Delhi: Virat Kohli’s explosive press conference on Wednesday ahead of India’s tour to South Africa reignited the debate around Team India’s captaincy saga that has dominated the headlines in the sports world in the past few days. Kohli, who was sacked as the Indian cricket team’s white-ball captain last week, made explosive claims regarding the lack of communication between him and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the whole episode. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has provided his views on the topic, saying BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is probably the best person to ask about the discrepancy in what he said and what the Indian Test captain said.
During the customary press conference before India’s departure for the tour to the Rainbow Nation, Kohli contradicted Ganguly’s statement, saying that no communication happened with him as regards to not relinquishing the T20I captaincy.
“I think it (Kohli’s comments) 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. Yes, he is the BCCI president and surely he should be asked why there is this discrepancy,” Gavaskar was quoted by India Today on Wednesday.
“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,” he added.
Kohli, who announced the decision about leaving captaincy from the shorter format, also confirmed his availability for the three ODIs in South Africa. The ODI series will be followed by the three-Test series, starting from December 26 in Centurion.
The Little Master – Gavaskar also spoke about the importance of ‘clear line of communication’ and the value of an official release while dealing with such a sensitive topic. “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,” Gavaskar said.
“As long as it’s not something that he 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,” the 72-year-old said.
Meanwhile, Kohli also completely shut out the dressing-room rift rumours with newly-appointed Team India limited-overs captain Rohit Sharma.
“I don’t know what these people wanted to do. As long as there has been communication between the chairman of selection and him, it’s the decent thing to do. Over there, what the conversation was, I am not aware. Maybe the chairman of the selection committee also said ‘thank you so much’,” Gavaskar concluded.