Kohli available for SA ODIs, refutes BCCI claim

Crystal clear communication has not exactly been the forte of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and this has been exposed in the latest Virat Kohli captaincy saga.

In his address to the media prior to the South Africa Test series, skipper Kohli cleared the air with regard to his interaction with the BCCI stating there was communication only an hour and a half prior to the selection meeting on December 8th and he is very much available for the ODI series.

“I was contacted one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting on December 8 for the Test series,” Kohli said of the communication (or lack of it) with the BCCI on the ODI captaincy. “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.”

“The chief selector [Chetan Sharma] discussed with me the Test team to which we both agreed, and before ending the call I was told that the five selectors have decided that I will not be the ODI captain, to which I replied, ‘okay, fine’. And in the selection call afterwards, we chatted about it briefly. And that’s what happened. There was no communication prior to that at all.”

This was in complete contradiction to what the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had communicated to the Press Trust of India (PTI) on December 9th about the BCCI requesting Kohli not to step down from T20I captaincy.

“When I decided to leave the T20I captaincy and communicated that, and I approached the BCCI first about my decision, that this is my point of view, and these are the reasons due to which I am doing this, it was received in a very nice way,” Kohli said. “There was no offence, no hesitation (from BCCI). I wasn’t told you don’t leave the T20 captaincy. Instead it was received well; I was told it’s a very progressive step and in the right direction.”

“At the time I told them ‘yes, I’d like to continue (leading) in Tests and ODIs, unless the office-bearers and selectors feel I shouldn’t be doing that responsibility’. Even that I had clarified on the call at the time. My communication to BCCI was clear since then about what I wanted to do. I gave them the option as well, that if the office-bearers and selectors feel I shouldn’t (remain captain in Tests and/or ODIs), then the decision is in their hands.”

TREAT PLAYERS WITH RESPECT

To be fair to Kohli, if going by what he has clearly spelt out in the presser, this is shabby treatment that the BCCI has meted out to a player of such stature.

Kohli is an all-time India great and on the way and possibly already one of the greatest batsmen of modern day cricket.

Despite the downer of not having won ICC trophies, Kohli has had a stupendous captaincy record, especially in Test cricket.

At a time when the team is headed for a crucial away tour of South Africa where they would look to win that elusive Test series, this controversy is needless.

Kohli and Rohit Sharma are giants of Indian cricket and the least they deserve is respect from their own board and the media instead of cooked up stories from so called ‘sources’.