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Cricket Players'Ganguly had no business speaking on behalf of selectors': Vengsarkar slams BCCI chief, calls Kohli row 'unfortunate'
Former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar is miffed with BCCI president Sourav Ganguly for the 'unfortunate' handling of the Virat Kohli captaincy saga.
Former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar is miffed with BCCI president Sourav Ganguly for the 'unfortunate' handling of the Virat Kohli captaincy chapter. Kohli's removal as captain of India's ODI team has been received with a lot of mixed reactions, but Vengsarkar, who himself is a former chairman of selectors feels it was not Ganguly's place to make a comment on behalf of the selectors.
"The thing is that Ganguly had no business to speak on behalf of the selection committee. Ganguly is the president of BCCI. Any issue about selection or captaincy, it's the chairman of the selection committee who should speak," Vengsarkar told Khaleej Times in an interview.
The whole thing escalated when Ganguly told media that he and the BCCI requested Kohli to continue as India's T20I captain but the 33-year-old batter did not listen. Kohli, on the contrary, dismissed Ganguly's statement, saying that his call to step down as captain of the T20I team was well received and that he wasn't asked to reconsider the decision. This created an uproar in Indian cricket, with many pitting it as somewhat of Kohli vs Ganguly/BCCI contest.
"Ganguly spoke about the whole thing, obviously Virat wanted to make his case clear. I believe it should have been between the chairman of the selection committee and the captain. A captain is selected or removed by the selection committee, that's not Ganguly's jurisdiction at all," the former India batter pointed out.
Vengsarkar was surprised at the manner in which the entire episode was handled, adding that a player and captain of Kohli's statute, who has contributed so much towards Indian cricket and his nation, deserved a better send-off. He mentioned that this age-old practice of the board sacking Indian captains unceremoniously needs to change.
"It has always been the case right from 1932 (when the first Indian team was selected). Once we saw four captains in five Test matches. But yes, things should change now. Kohli, you have to respect him, he has done so much for the country, so much for Indian cricket. But how they dealt with him, it must have definitely hurt him," he said.