BCCI refutes Virat Kohli's statement on lack of communication over T20I captaincy

During the press conference regarding the India tour of South Africa, the Indian test captain Virat Kohli cleared a lot of questions that were going around for a long time. Apart from explaining India’s preparation and the chances against South Africa, he focused on the way through which he was removed from ODI captaincy. His explanation has steered another controversy.

Along with that, Kohli also mentioned that the decision of stepping down from the T20I captaincy was made, keeping BCCI in the loop. An official from BCCI had a different point of view regarding this issue. BCCI has cleared that they requested Kohli not to step down and continue being the skipper in the shortest format.

“Virat Kohli can’t say that we didn’t keep him in the loop. We spoke to Virat in Sept and asked him not to quit the T20 captaincy. Once Virat gave up the T20 captaincy on his own, it was difficult to have 2 white ball captains. Chetan Sharma told Virat about the ODI captaincy on the morning of the meeting,” a BCCI official told India Today.

Earlier, Sourav Ganguly, BCCI’s president, also said that the board asked him not to step down from his position. However, according to Kohli, his decision to step down was well received by the BCCI.

No one told me that I should not leave the T20I captaincy: Virat Kohli

Kohli mentioned that no one stopped him from leaving the captaincy during the press conference. He further said, “When I communicated with the BCCI first about quitting the T20I captaincy, I told them that this is my point of view, these are the reasons for my decision. It was received quite well. No one took offense, no one had any hesitation. No one told me that I should not leave the T20I captaincy.”

Kohli further added that he wanted to remain the captain of the Indian team in ODIs and Test cricket, and he communicated the same to the BCCI. A few days back, Ganguly had said that he spoke to Kohli personally and told him about BCCI’s decision to make Rohit Sharma the new captain of the ODI side.