Reports: BCCI was mulling to sack Virat Kohli as ODI skipper for last four months

Plenty has been written and said about Virat Kohli’s captaincy issue in the weeks gone by, but there are unanswered questions remaining. Amidst a flurry of reports, reactions and statements, it has emerged that sacking Kohli was on the BCCI office-bearers mind for long.

Kohli had announced his decision to step down as the team’s T20I skipper in a bid to manage his workload, although he clarified his intentions to continue leading the Test and ODI teams. Much to the surprise of many, the BCCI, while naming the Test squad for the South Africa series, added rather imposingly that the selectors have “decided” to have Rohit Sharma leading the ODI team “going forward”.

Later, the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly revealed that the call was taken by the board and the selectors together to avoid “too much leadership” as the stakeholders reached a common agreement that two white-ball teams do not need different captains. Ganguly added that Kohli had turned down BCCI’s request to not step down as the T20I skipper, only for Kohli to publicly refute those claims to add more spice into the episode.

“I was contacted one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting on December 8 for the Test series,” Kohli told reporters in the customary pre-departure conference ahead of the South Africa tour. “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.

“The chief selector [Chetan Sharma] discussed with me the Test team to which we both agreed, and before ending the call I was told that the five selectors have decided that I will not be the ODI captain, to which I replied, ‘okay, fine’. And in the selection call afterwards, we chatted about it briefly. And that’s what happened. There was no communication prior to that at all.”

His comments were in stark contrast to Ganguly’s statement from less than a week before: “We had requested Virat not to step down as T20 captain but he didn’t want to continue as captain,” Ganguly told reporters on December 9. “So, the selectors felt that they cannot have two white-ball captains in two white-ball formats. That’s too much of leadership.”

Meanwhile, the emergence of reports suggesting that his sacking was on the board’s mind since much longer only comes as another twist in the long list of twists this story has already thrown upon all.