Kohli vs Ganguly: Who is lying here?

New Delhi: There can’t be any better person than Sourav Ganguly to explain that how if the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) decides to get rid of any player or a captain, no one can save him from the axe. Go down the history of Indian cricket from Tiger Pataudi’s era till Ganguly’s time, no captain has been given a choice to go on his own terms.

Now is the turn of Virat Kohli. The same captain who in 2017 was the darling of the fractured BCCI under the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators chief Vinod Rai. He was probably the first one, and could remain as last one, got his say in the appointment of chief coach (Ravi Shastri) while unceremoniously removing former skipper Anil Kumble in the process.

Ganguly then was no one in the BCCI. He was dead against having Shastri as a coach and protested over the manner Kumble was “mistreated” by Kohli. Now that he is heading BCCI, he got a chance to settle old scores. But he could have never imagined that captain as shrewd as Kohli will so easily fall into his trap.

The writing was clear on the wall for Kohli from the day it was announced by BCCI top bosses that former skipper Rahul Dravid, a close friend of Kumble from Bengaluru, has been asked to apply for the chief coach’s post. This all happened post-Shastri’s book launch amidst the England tour which resulted in four support staff along with a couple of players being isolated for the Covid-19 threat.

BCCI was obviously informed that players and support staff were forced to attend the function outside the team’s “bio-bubble” on the behest of skipper Kohli. With Shastri’s tenure coming to an end in a month then, there was a clear cut understanding within the BCCI that a “new coach is needed to bell the under-performing skipper”.

Kohli, by this time, was high flying in his own world and failed to judge the signals.

During the England tour, when one of the senior selection committee members tried to get in touch with him over the phone to discuss team selection, he was rudely told that “skipper is doing baby-sitting and can’t attend his call”.

With Shastri surely going to be relieved of his duties after T20 World Cup in the UAE, Kohli continued to put pressure on selectors to give him players of his choice or “don’t blame him for the team’s failure in the T20 WC”.

It was during that time there in England that Kohli discussed his plan to relinquish T20 captaincy after the T20 WC with those attending the virtual meeting. Going by an insider who was privy to what happened during that meet, BCCI president and secretary did ask the Indian skipper to avoid any such announcement as “that may not do well to the morale of the team before such a big tournament”.

So when Ganguly says that “he personally requested Kohli not to give up T20 captaincy”, he is right in saying so. But Kohli was specific about stepping down from T20 captaincy and did tell the BCCI top brass that he would like to continue as a leader in the remaining two formats (Test and ODI).

Not on talking terms

Those who understand the personal equation between Kohli and Ganguly know well that the Indian skipper had no communication with the BCCI president outside official platforms.

One top BCCI official did tell that “Indian skipper even put Ganguly’s number in the block list”.

Rest is the history as Team India failed to progress beyond the group stage of the T20 WC after the first two humiliating defeats against Pakistan and New Zealand. The selection committee, by this time, got enough signals from the top to replace Kohli with Rohit Sharma in the white-ball format.

Going by what Ganguly explained, Kohli had sacked himself from the ODI captaincy. There are obvious reasons for him to say so because as a cricketing format, the ODI and T20 are played with white-ball and needs a different kind of approach and application by the captain or for that matter by the team.

“How can Virat be so novice to expect selectors to have two different skippers for white-ball formats?” said a selector on condition of anonymity. “The moment Virat announced his decision to let go the T20 captainship, there was no confusion in our minds that Rohit would lead in both (ODI and T20) the formats,” said the source.

Now comes the second part of the verbal exchange between the two stalwarts of Indian cricket. When Kohli revealed that he was only told about his sacking as captain of the ODI side 90 minutes before the selection committee meeting, he was stating the facts correctly. The problem with him is that he was probably expecting a little too much from all (the five selectors) for whom he had either no or very little respect till a few days back.

BCCI, being BCCI, put a nice tweet immediately to acknowledge Kohli’s contribution as captain in white-ball cricket.

Ganguly, on the other hand, was not ready to be cowed down by Kohli like that of 2017. This serves two purposes. One, it sends signals to all the future captains that who is supreme between BCCI and the captain. Two, he wanted to restore the old power of the BCCI president.

Who is telling lies?

But the big question here is that who was spreading these rumours on behalf of Kohli that “he is not interested in playing ODIs in South Africa and asked for a leave?”

In his presser just before leaving for probably the biggest test of his cricketing career, Kohli flatly contradicted these false claims as “barefaced lies”.

“I’m always available for selection,” he minced no words in his bid to slam Ganguly camp.

It is hard to think of any such precedent in the past where the captain has contradicted anything and everything that the BCCI president has said about him. It is also for the first time that the president of the Indian Cricket Board has come out in public to announce that “matter will be dealt appropriately by the BCCI”.

Ganguly refused to make further comment. “No statement, no press conference,” he told TV reporters standing outside his gate in Kolkata on Thursday. “We will deal with it. Leave it to BCCI.”

Going by the insiders, Ganguly had got the chairman of the selection committee Chetan Sharma to agree to do a press conference on the very next day to set the things straight about Kohli’s claims. It was only when someone in the BCCI secretary’s office advised him against any such haste and rather deals the situation maturely.

Team India has now landed in South Africa amidst the shadows of the ongoing war between India’s two most known cricket personalities.

The final Test in Cape Town will be the Indian captain’s 100^th Test appearance. He understands that things have gone to such a level that anything less than a series win along with big runs off his willow would not be enough to save his captaincy in this red-ball format even! – INDIA NEWS STREAM

The writer is a senior sports journalist based in New Delhi. He can be reached at shekhar.luthra@gmail.com. The opinion expressed in the article are author’s own.