Hyderabad: India Test skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday said the BCCI never asked him to reconsider quitting T20 leadership as claimed by the Board and his removal from ODI captaincy happened 90 minutes before the team's selection for the upcoming South Africa tour.
At the pre-departure press meet before the South Africa tour, the Indian skipper took all the tough questions head-on and said that he would put his full support behind new white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid's "vision". He said he understands that not winning an ICC white ball trophy led to his removal.
However, Kholi contradicted the statement of BCCI president Sourav Ganguly in which he stated that “I was never told not to give up T20I captaincy. There was no prior communication to me at all since I announced the T20I captaincy decision until the 8th of December, where I got a call 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 the five selectors have decided I will not be the ODI captain, to which I replied, ‘okay, fine’. In the selection call afterward, we chatted about it briefly. That’s what happened. There was no communication prior to that at all,” Kohli said.
Virat told "I gave the reasons why I wanted to quit T20 captaincy and my viewpoint was received very nicely. There was no offence, no hesitation, and not for once was I told that 'you should not leave T20 captaincy" Kohli said the BCCI even called his decision a progressive one.
"Whatever was said about the communication that happened about the decision that was made was inaccurate," Kohli said with obvious reference to BCCI president Sourav Ganguly's statement about the Board requesting him not to quit as split captaincy might not work in the white-ball format.
The discord between Kohli and the BCCI mandarins came out in the open when Rohit Sharma announced as the Caption of ODI format. There are talks after the announcement in which it's been told that Virat Kohli's cell phone is switched off.
But you had only stated that you wanted to remain captain till the 2023 ODI World Cup? "Was it a question?" Kohli smiled. "Yes, it is a question because you had only said you wanted to remain India's ODI captain?" the reporter again asked. "When I left the T20 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).
Ganguly had stated that Kohli's decision to not reconsider giving up T20 captaincy prompted the selectors to go for Rohit as the sole white-ball skipper as two different captains in the two formats would have led to "too much leadership."
"We had requested Virat not to step down as T20 captain but he didn't want to continue as captain. So, the selectors felt that they cannot have two white ball captains in two white-ball formats. That's too much of leadership," the BCCI president and former India captain had told PTI.
Rohit also replaced a woefully out of form Ajinkya Rahane as Kohli's deputy in the Test format.
(With agency inputs)
Read : There is no rift between me and Rohit, clarifies Kohli
