BCCI will deal with it appropriately: Sourav Ganguly responds to Virat Kohli’s comments on ODI captaincy saga

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly has finally broken his silence on Virat Kohli’s comments on the ODI captaincy saga in the press conference before leaving for South Africa. In an explosive presser, Kohli had refuted Ganguly’s claims of asking him to not give up T20I captaincy and also stated that there was no prior communication with him about the change in ODI captaincy. 

Kohli said, “Whatever was said about the communication that happened about the decision that was made was inaccurate. I was contacted one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting on December 8 for the Test series and there was no prior communication to me at all since I announced my decision on T20I captaincy.”

“When I left the T20I captaincy, I had first approached BCCI and intimated them of my decision and laid down my point of view in front of them (office bearers). I gave the reasons why I wanted to quit T20 captaincy and my view point was received very nicely. There was no offence, no hesitation and not for once was I told that ‘you should not leave T20 captaincy’,” added Kohli. 

With Kohli directly contradicting Ganguly’s statement, the former Indian captain has faced a lot of heat over the last 24 hours and many prominent members of the Indian cricket fraternity have asked him to clear the air. 

Ganguly in his first statement since Kohli’s comments stated that he will not make any additional comments and the matter will be dealt by the board. The BCCI president told News18, “I have no comments to make. The BCCI will deal with it appropriately.”

A few days ago in an interview, Ganguly had told News 18, “I personally requested him (Kohli) not to give up the T20I captaincy. Obviously, he felt the workload. Which is fine, he has been a great cricketer, he has been very intense with his cricket. He has captained for a long period of time and these things happen. Because I have captained for a long period of time; therefore, I know.

“Also, they wanted only one white-ball captain. And that’s why this decision. I don’t know what’s going to happen in future. But as I said, it’s a good team and it has some fantastic players and I hope they will turn it around,” he added. 

With Ganguly and Kohli directly contradicting each other in public, there is visible tension between Indian cricket’s governing body and India’s Test skipper going into the big series against South Africa.