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Sourav Ganguly talks about Virat Kohli controversy (Source: Twitter)
After Team India's painful loss to Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval on Sunday, former Indian Cricket Board president Sourav Ganguly made an eye-catching statement regarding Virat Kohli. Kohli and Ganguly, two of the best administrators to serve Indian cricket, were rumoured to be at odds throughout Ganguly's bittersweet tenure as the head of the supreme cricket board.
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Ganguly asserted that the Indian Cricket Board had asked Virat to retain his position as Team India's captain after Kohli had resigned as the team's captain. However, in a shocking press conference before India's away Test series against South Africa, Kohli had explicitly refuted Ganguly's assertion. After the pair's 'no-handshake' episode during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 became the talk of the town, Ganguly and Kohli appeared to have patched things up in their most recent public exchange.
‘We weren’t prepared for Virat Kohli leaving the Test captaincy’ – Sourav Ganguly
After the India vs. Australia World T20 final, Ganguly spoke with Aaj Tak and reminisced about his time as the head of the Indian cricket board. The former captain of India admitted that the BCCI had misgivings about Kohli stepping down as Test captain. "Indian Cricket Board was not prepared for Virat Kohli leaving the Test captaincy. It was unexpected for us also after the South Africa tour. Only Virat Kohli can reveal why he left the captaincy. There is no point talking about this now because Virat Kohli left the Test captaincy. Selectors had to appoint an India captain. And Rohit was the best option at that time," Ganguly said.
Speaking to the media ahead of the South Africa Test series, Kohli acknowledged that only one and a half hours before the selection meeting for the South Africa tour, he received word that his time as captain was coming to an end. "There was no prior communication to me at all from when I announced the T20I captaincy decision until the eighth (of December) where, as I said, I got a call one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting," Kohli had said.