On Friday, the chairman of the selection committee, Chetan Sharma told that everyone from the top brass to the selectors had requested Virat Kohli to reconsider his decision of quitting T20I captaincy and contradicted Kohli’s statement that he gave pre-departure to South Africa.
In the fiery press conference, Kohli had dropped a bombshell on BCCI president Sourav Ganguly saying that no one had contacted him regarding the T20I captaincy and was told only 90 minutes before the meeting ended that he has been sacked from ODI captaincy as well.
Chetan Sharma’s statement on the issue
The chairman’s statement was completely the opposite of that of the Test skipper’s.
When meeting started, it was a surprise for everybody. If the World T20 is round the corner and you hear something like this, what will be your reaction? Everyone present in that meeting has told him that he should think hard about his decision (to quit T20 captaincy) and we can talk about it after the World Cup.
He further added,
All selectors felt at that time that this can affect us in the World Cup. It was told to Virat for sake of Indian cricket, please continue as the captain and it was told by everybody (BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah) present in the meeting.
The convenors were there, board officials were there. Sabhi ne bola hai (everyone told him), who won’t tell you? If this news comes to you, you are in a shock.
As Virat decided to leave T20 captaincy, the selectors decided on the ODI leadership
After this shocking decision, Chetan Sharma didn’t want two captains for the white-ball format and thus decided to sack Virat.
It was Virat’s decision and nobody actually told him to quit the captaincy. Once he quit T20 captaincy, obviously the selectors have to think what our decision is and obviously it is one captain for white-ball formats, it becomes easy for selectors to plan things.
Chetan Sharma told it on record that the 50 overs decision was theirs and T20 was Kohli’s.
Was the decision to remove Kohli from ODI captaincy revealed to him?
To this question, Chetan Sharma had a counter-question ready.
Would you be able to tell at that time, at that very moment what your decision will be? That wasn’t the right time and we were in the middle of a World Cup. We had to cool down things so that it doesn’t affect the World Cup campaign.
That wasn’t the time to tell him we will remove him. Everyone in board said that.
Said Sharma.
The 90 minute controversy of Virat Kohli
While Kohli stuck to his “90 minutes” statement steadfastly, Chetan Sharma gave his side of the story.
As soon as selection committee meeting got over, I immediately called up Virat. We didn’t want to inform in the selection meeting and that’s why I called him when our meeting was over and this is what the selectors are saying and there will be one white-ball captain and there were a couple of questions and we had good conversations.
He further added,
He (Kohli) agreed on that. What we discuss I can’t disclose it here and we had a good chat. When it comes to planning, our thought process was we need one white-ball captain.
The factor of Miscommunication
Sharma agreed that there should be proper communication between selectors and players. He also said that going forward, he will make himself available and would be open to all discussions on selection post meetings.
We don’t want to hide anything. Only those people have something to hide, who are doing anything wrong. We are not doing anything wrong.
Would Kohli and Rohit Sharma be made to sit face-to-face?
For this, the chairman said that there was no need for such a situation.
They are absolutely fine. Don’t go by speculation.
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