The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly on Thursday dodged questions on Virat Kohli after the former ODI captain made some startling revelations in the media a day before.
Ganguly had said that he personally spoke to Kohli when he was deciding to step down as the T20I captain and urged him to carry on with the job but the star cricketer refused to continue.
Kohli however, claimed on Wednesday that no such conversation took place between him and any official of the board which has now led to a furore and confusion in the Indian cricketing fraternity.
Ganguly, when asked about Kohli’s comments, refused to speak on the controversy after being hounded by reporters.
“I have got nothing to say. We will deal with it, leave it to the BCCI,” the former India captain said.
The top brass of the BCCI is not in agreement with Kohli’s claims and is in a huddle to come up with a response strategy, India Today has learnt.
BCCI is of course anguished but the board is in a very tricky situation, sources have said.
On one hand, if they come out in open and say that Kohli’s claims are not true, it paints a bad picture about the skipper to the fans and other stakeholders of the sport. On the other hand, if they remain silent, it would appear that the board mistreated the captain.
Even as the controversy rages on, Virat Kohli and his Test team departed for their South Africa tour in a chartered plane from Mumbai on Thursday morning.
Kohli will lead the Test team in a series of 3 matches from December 26 while Rohit, who has been ruled out of the red-ball games due to a hamstring injury, will captain the ODI side if he gets fit before January 19.
