It’s a cracker! Tough nuts at it
There’s more to the Virat Kohli saga than meets the eye. The big players have been making their moves behind the scenes, with an iron hand.
On Wednesday, Kohli clarified that he was given an hour-and-a-half ’s notice before being sacked as ODI captain, contradicting BCCI president Sourav Ganguly’s statement that the Board had asked him to stay as T20
captain. “We had requested Virat not to step down as
T20 captain but he didn’t want to continue, so the selectors felt that they cannot have two white ball captains in two white-ball formats. That’s too much of leadership,” Ganguly had said.
“I was contacted one-andhalf-hours before selection meeting on (December) 8th for Test series and there was no prior communication to me at all since I announced my decision on T20 captaincy,” Kohli sought to strike back.
Sources close to the cricketer say the writing is on the wall for the feisty player and since both Kohli and Ganguly are headstrong individuals, sparks are bound to fly. “Nobody is indispensible. No player can be a permanent feature and has to move on. Just that the transition has to be smooth, which does not seem likely in this case,” says a former cricketer who did not wish to be quoted.
“The selectors, BCCI heads and Kohli should have sat across the table and talked it out. That has not happened. The clash of egos is obvious,” another player added.
“A cold war is on between Kohli and Rohit for sure, but such things have been prevalent in Indian cricket, right from Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev days. They are good in the dressing room, their vision for the team is the same but they are not always on the same page,” said a source.
“The Board must have taken the decision after doing some homework in terms of speaking to players and others as to what is happening in the team, Kohli’s availability to the players and the side — he is believed to be unavailable during non-playing times, creating mental blocks for them,” another said.
ONLY 7 ODIS BEFORE WC
There are other points of view. “Kohli has stepped down as T20 skipper but does not want to relinquish ODI captaincy, which is a fair call from his side. He got the team to the finals and semifinals of ICC tournaments. From his perspective, we have won 65 to 70 per cent of ODI matches under his captaincy.
“The selectors don’t want to confuse players with two different styles of captaincy in the build-up to T20 World Cup to be held in OctoberNovember in Australia next year. India is playing only seven one-dayers till the event as we are playing more T20s than ODIs in the run-up to the T20 Cup. Just for the sake of seven matches, why would you want two different captains when the core team remains the same for both formats. This is the main reason why selectors have decided to go with Rohit for both the formats,” a former player said.
Kohli’s relationship with Rohit, the BCCI biggies and chairman of selection committee has surely been ruptured. The cracks will only grow bigger.
Sources close to India’s
Test captain say the writing is on the wall for the feisty player and
since both Kohli and Ganguly are headstrong individuals, sparks are
bound to fly.