Earlier this week, the BCCI left the cricket fraternity and the fans in shock after they named India’s talismanic batsman Rohit Sharma as the new ODI captain of the Indian cricket team ahead of the upcoming South Africa series, replacing Virat Kohli.
The move came out as a big surprise especially because Rohit was recently named as the T20I skipper after the former Indian skipper Virat Kohli had announced his decision to step down from the captaincy of the shortest format. However, Virat had specifically mentioned in his social media post that he would continue to lead the Indian team in Tests and ODIs format.
While a lot of experts and fans presumed that Virat might have had willingly stepped down from the position, but on the other hand, rumors and speculations have been making rounds on the internet, stating that the skipper was sacked from his position.
BCCI gave no explanation, no details, no reasoning, there was just one line wherein the board named Rohit Sharma as India’s new ODI captain.
“The All-India Senior Selection Committee also decided to name Mr Rohit Sharma as the Captain of the ODI & T20I teams going forward,” The BCCI had Tweeted.
Several reports claimed that Virat Kohli was given only 48 hours to step down from the position of the ODI captaincy. And after Virat refused to step down from the position, he was sacked by the board and Rohit was announced as the new ODI captain. Fans were also disappointed with the fact that not a single word of appreciation was posted by the BCCI for Virat Kohli over 24 hours after the announcement was made.
But this isn’t the first time that the BCCI has pulled such a trick. Well, about two and a half decades ago, it was Sachin Tendulkar, the greatest ever, who had found himself in a similar situation. In fact, Sachin Tendulkar had even confessed about how humiliating he felt after the BCCI brushed him aside.
Sachin captained India in 73 ODIs and 25 Tests between 1996 to 2000. Team India managed to win 23 ODIs and lost 43 under his captaincy, while the Indian cricket team managed only 4 wins out of 25 in Tests format, losing 9. He was going through a rough phase in his career when he was sacked by the BCCI.
Sachin Tendulkar has opened up about the unfortunate incident in his autobiography titled ‘Playing It My Way’ and has expressed the pain and humiliation he had felt at the time.
“At the end of the series, I was unceremoniously sacked as skipper. No one from the BCCI managed to call me or inform me of my removal as captain before someone from the media called to say I was no longer captain,” Tendulkar had written.
“I was actually with my friends in Sahitya Sahawas. I felt extremely humiliated to hear this, but the manner in which the whole thing was handled strengthened my resolve to be a better cricketer in the years to come.”
“I told myself that the BCCI mandarins might be able to take the captaincy away from me, but no one could do the same as far as my own cricket was concerned,” he wrote.
“During my tenure as captain some of the players used to call me ‘skip’, so when one of the players shouted out ‘skipper’ in our next engagement in Dhaka, I automatically turned around to answer the call. That’s when it really hit me that I was no longer the captain of the Indian cricket team. Now I simply had to focus on my batting and win some matches for the team. So that’s what I did,” he had written in his autobiography.
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