Former Indian cricketer Kirti Azad has come out and spoken about the BCCI-Kohli saga. Remembering his days as the selector, during the Ganguly-Chappell era, Azad said that he had supported the former Indian skipper when he was asked to step down from the role. Needless to mention that the recent captaincy controversy is pretty similar to what had happened with Ganguly as far as ODIs were concerned.
“I remember I had defended him when Greg Chappell was coach and he was dropped as captain. He should have learnt from his own example and spoken to Virat much earlier. I am not saying Virat is a special case. Yes, he is a special batter and a special cricketer. He leads by example and leads by example,” Azad said in an interview.
“I remember how Bishan Bedi was dethroned, how Sunil Gavaskar was dethroned. Venkataraghavan was in his flight and when he landed, he was replaced as captain. At least, Sourav should have realised through his own experience,” the 62-year-old Azad added.
BCCI-Kohli captaincy saga
The Indian team captaincy has been a major issue for the last few weeks after Virat Kohli was relieved of his duties as the ODI captain. The Delhi-born batter had earlier relinquished his T20I captaincy after the ICC T20 World Cup.
Kohli did not receive the information happily as he and the BCCI were on different pages.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly tried to cool down the matter by speaking publicly and stating there will be no more public clarifications on the issue. Kohli on the other hand, also kept silent since the team landed in South Africa. The 33-year-old Kohli was seen taking batting tips from head coach Rahul Dravid as he tries to get back to form.
India team is scheduled to play three Test matches, starting with the Boxing Day (December 26) encounter at Centurion. Indian team will not have Rohit Sharma for the Test series, as he got injured.
Rohit was awarded the vice-captaincy of the Test side, while he will also lead the ODI team.
