‘Look at what he’s done for you’ – Salman Butt lashes out at BCCI for ‘disrespectful’ treatment of Virat Kohli

Former Pakistan opener Salman Butt has come down hard on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over their handling of Virat Kohli, who was recently replaced by Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain.

Butt, who had himself admitted that the move was “on the cards”, stated that even if the Indian selectors wanted to take the decision of changing the leadership, the way the entire event came out could have been a lot better, given Kohli has been one of the most valuable cricketers for his nation.

Ever since the December 8 tweet from the BCCI announcing the selection committee’s call of “deciding” to name Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain “going forward” has come out, multiple reports have suggested as to how the call was imposed on Kohli, who had expressed his desire to lead the 50-overs team while he announced his decision to step down as the T20I skipper to manage his workload.

BCCI should’ve been more respectful towards Kohli: Salman Butt

“BCCI didn’t want Kohli to step down (before T20 WC). But it doesn’t make much sense for white-ball formats to have two different captains. It would’ve been better if there was no aggrieved party in this situation, though,” Butt said on his official YouTube channel.

“The reports came across after the announcement that Kohli was given two days to step down and while this shows how much authority they have, you have to look at what he has done for his country. It should’ve been more respectful. You have your cricket board on one side, and one of the best players in the world at the other,” Butt said.

Despite being against how the board tackled the matter, Butt went on to term their decision as a sensible one. “Anyway, whatever happened, in the end, makes sense because you shouldn’t have two captains for different white-ball formats,” said Butt.

“Joe Root plays one-dayers for England but their captain remains (Eoin) Morgan. Similarly in Australia, Aaron Finch leads them in ODIs and T20Is and Cummins is the captain of the Test team despite the latter playing all formats.”