The rift continues to grow between Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI President, and Virat Kohli, former India captain across all formats.
On Thursday, several media reports claimed that Ganguly had wanted to send a show-cause notice to Virat Kohli after the latter’s explosive press conference before leaving for South Africa.
Days after Kohli had relinquished his T20I captaincy, Ganguly had said that he had requested Kohli to reconsider his decision to step down as T20I captain. However, Kohli completely contradicted Ganguly’s statement and denied being asked any such thing.
During the press conference before the departure for South Africa, Kohli had contradicted Ganguly saying that nobody had asked him not to step down as the T20I skipper. This created a furore in Indian cricket, with the chief selector, Chetan Sharma, also confirming Ganguly’s version of events later on.
Sourav Ganguly was reported to be utterly unhappy with Kohli’s comments and was reported to have wanted to send a show-cause notice to the then Test captain ahead of the South Africa series
Hoping to get clarification over this issue, ANI contacted Ganguly for a comment on the reports that have emerged, to which he replied: “Not true.”
In that press conference, Virat Kohli also revealed that he was informed of the board’s decision to sack him as India’s ODI captain just one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting to pick the Test squad for South Africa. He also said that there hadn’t been any communication between the two parties regarding his ODI captaincy before that meeting.
“I was contacted one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting on December 8 for the Test series. There was no prior communication to me at all from when I announced the T20I captaincy decision until the eighth (of December) where, as I said, I got a call one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting,” Kohli had said last month.
In an unforeseen announcement, Virat Kohli resigned as India’s Test captain last week, just a day after the team had been defeated in the Test series by 2-1.
Ganguly tweeted that this is Kohli’s personal decision and the board respects it.
“Under Virat’s leadership, Indian cricket has made rapid strides in all formats of the game ..his decision is a personal one and BCCI respects it immensely ..he will be an important member to take this team to newer heights in the future. A great player. well done ..@BCCI @imVkohli,” Ganguly had tweeted.
Under Virats leadership Indian cricket has made rapid strides in all formats of the game ..his decision is a personal one and bcci respects it immensely ..he will be an important member to take this team to newer heights in the future.A great player.well done ..@BCCI @imVkohli
— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) January 15, 2022
