Former India cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and its president Sourav Ganguly for the way he handled the latest captaincy saga that involved India Test team skipper Virat Kohli.
Kohli was removed from the ODI captain's position earlier this month and Rohit Sharma was appointed as India's new ODI skipper. After this, Kohli made multiple startling claims in a press conference before departing for the tour of South Africa.
Kohli contradicted Ganguly by saying that he didn't get a call from anybody from the board asking him to continue as the T20I captain and also claimed that he was informed of his removal from the ODI captain's position less than two hours before the squad for the South Africa series was announced.
Vengsarkar said that the incident was unfortunate and it should have been handled with more professionalism.
"It’s very unfortunate, the whole thing. I think it should have been handled more professionally by the cricket board.
"The thing is that Ganguly had no business to speak on behalf of the selection committee. Ganguly is the president of BCCI. Any issue about selection or captaincy, it’s the chairman of the selection committee who should speak,” Vengsarkar was quoted while speaking in an interview.
It is not Ganguly's jurisdiction
The former India chief selector believes that the chairman of the selection committee should have commented on the matter.
“Ganguly spoke about the whole thing, obviously Virat wanted to make his case clear. I believe it should have been between the chairman of the selection committee and the captain. A captain is selected or removed by the selection committee, that’s not Ganguly’s jurisdiction at all.
"Yes, things should change now. Kohli, you have to respect him, he has done so much for the country, so much for Indian cricket. But how they dealt with him, it must have definitely hurt him," Vengsarkar explained
33-year old Kohli is going to lead the Test team in the upcoming 3-match series in South Africa from December 26 while Rohit, who was ruled out of the red-ball matches due to a hamstring injury, will join the team next month and lead the ODI side from January 19 (if he is fit).
