'Ganguly had no business to speak on behalf of the selection committee': Dilip Vengsarkar reacts to Kohli-Ganguly saga

Former India cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar has reacted to the recent controversy involving Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly. BCCI recently sacked Virat Kohli as ODI captain and handed over the reins to Rohit Sharma. Kohli, who was disappointed with the lack of communication on the development by the BCCI, delivered an explosive press conference where he revealed that BCCI informed him about the decision to sack him as ODI captain only an hour ago.

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He also contradicted Sourav Ganguly's remarks that BCCI had requested Kohli to stay as T20I captain if he wants to lead the team in ODIs as the board is not in favour of split captaincy in the limited-overs format.

Vengsarkar was disappointed by the way things came out in the media and felt that the issues should have been dealt with more professionalism. He also questioned Sourav Ganguly's right to comment on the matter as he felt the decision to remove Kohli was taken by the selection committee and Ganguly had no right to speak on behalf of the committee.

"It’s very unfortunate, the whole thing. I think it should have been handled more professionally by the cricket board. 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 said to Khaleej Times.

“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," he added.

Vengsarkar feels the recent saga must have hurt Virat Kohli given what he has done for Indian cricket over the years. "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," Vengsarkar concluded.