Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has urged that Virat Kohli should have taken the name of those players also who had not texted him after he quit the Test captaincy earlier this year.
Gavaskar’s statement comes a day after Kohli, sitting in the press conference following India’s defeat to Pakistan, revealed that only MS Dhoni had messaged him after he had resigned as India’s Test skipper in January in South Africa.
Answering a question about any support he’d gotten from the cricket fraternity during his tough phase, Kohli had replied: “Let me tell you one thing: when I left Test captaincy, I got a message from only one person, with whom I had played previously; that was MS Dhoni. Many people have my number. On TV, people give lots of suggestions, people have a lot to say. But none of the people who had my number sent me a message.”
Sunil Gavaskar wants Virat Kohli’s to clarify his statement
This revelation from Kohli hasn’t gone down well with some; Sunil Gavaskar has opined that it is a bit unfair on some that Kohli didn’t name others who didn’t asked for his wellbeing.
“I don’t know what the dressing room inside situation was with all these other players, I think, ideally, if he is named one person who got in touch, maybe the other people who didn’t get in touch should have also been named. Then that would have been a little bit fair to everyone concerned rather than thinking everybody else didn’t get in touch with him,” Gavaskar told India Today.
In his press conference, Kohli also talked at length about the good and jovial dressing room environment in the context of Arshdeep Singh, who dropped a crucial catch of Asif Ali on duck, which cost India the game as Ali smashed 16 runs off 8 balls.
Gavaskar slams “futile” press conference questions
On this Gavaskar made a sharp remark, saying that no player – whether in the IPL or India team – will speak against his current captain and coach and the environment, labelling such questions as “futile”.
“No, that I can’t say, that is his mindset, I am not a psychologist (Kohli still has captaincy thoughts?). I am just saying what I feel when I hear the comments coming about the current leadership. One of the most futile questions that I hear during an IPL Q and A session between the commentators and the Man of the Match asking about the current coach and the current captain.
“Is that current player ever going to say anything against the current captain and coach? That’s a futile question. Nobody, anybody, who is mindful of his career, is going to cut his feet by saying something stupid about the current regime,” Gavaskar added.
