Mumbai: India Test captain Virat Kohli said on Wednesday that he was dropped from the ODI captaincy 90 minutes before the team’s selection for the tour of South Africa and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) never asked him to reconsider stepping down as the captain of the T20 side. As claimed by the board.
In a press conference ahead of his departure for the South Africa tour, the Indian skipper answered all tough questions and said he would fully support the ‘vision’ of new limited overs captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid. He said he could understand that he was dropped for not winning trophies in International Cricket Council limited overs tournaments.
Referring to BCCI President Sourav Ganguly’s statement that the board had urged him not to step down as it would probably not be right to have two captains in the limited overs formats, Kohli said, “Whatever it is about the decision taken.” The dialogue took place, whatever was said about it is wrong.” “I was contacted one-and-a-half hour before the selection meeting for the Test series on December 8 and before that I had not been in touch with me since the announcement of my decision on T20 captaincy,” he said.
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Kohli said, “The chief selector discussed the Test team, which we both agreed on. Before I finished, I was told that the five selectors have decided that I will not be the captain of the one-day international, to which I said ‘Okay, it’s okay’. On the next question, however, the differences between Kohli and the BCCI office-bearers came to the fore. But you said that you want to remain captain only till the 2023 ODI World Cup? To this Kohli laughed and asked, “Was that the question?”
To this the correspondent asked again, “Yes, that’s the question because you said you want to continue as the captain of the India ODI team.” “When I relinquished the T20 captaincy, I first approached the BCCI and informed them about my decision and presented my view to them (officials),” Kohli said. Giving the exact opposite information from Ganguly’s statement a few days ago, the Indian captain said, “I gave reasons why I want to leave the T20 captaincy and my point of view was well understood. Nothing was wrong, there was no hesitation and not once was it said that you should not give up the T20 captaincy. ,
Kohli said that the BCCI office-bearers called his decision progressive. On the contrary, the BCCI termed it as a progressive and a step in the right direction. At that time I had said that yes, I want to continue (captain) in Tests and One Day Internationals as long as the office bearers and selectors feel that I should continue to carry out this responsibility. Kohli said, “My communication with the BCCI was clear. I had given the option that if the office bearers and selectors have some other opinion then it (the decision) is in their hands. (agency)