No statements or presser, will deal with it: Ganguly declines comment on Kohli’s bombshell PC

PTI, Dec 16, 2021, 5:04 PM IST

Aday after India Test captain Virat Kohli triggered a storm by publicly contradicting him, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly refused to comment on the matter, saying the Board will deal with it.

Kohli, during his pre-departure press conference ahead of the tour of South Africa, said that he was never asked to stay on as T20 skipper when he made his intent clear on relinquishing the post.

This was in complete contrast to Ganguly’s assertion a few days back that Kohli had been requested to not quit the position.

”No statements, no press conference. We will deal with it, leave it to (the) BCCI,” Ganguly told local mediapersons on Thursday.

There was talk of BCCI asking chairman of selectors Chetan Sharma to address the media after Kohli’s explosive press conference but the Board eventually refrained from making any counter statements.

Kohli’s comments on Wednesday brought to fore the underlying tension in his equation with the administrators. ”Whatever was said about the communication that happened about the decision that was made was inaccurate,” Kohli had said with obvious reference to Ganguly’s statement.

”When I left the T20 captaincy, I had first approached BCCI and intimated them of my decision and laid down my point of view in front of them (office bearers).

”I gave the reasons why I wanted to quit T20 captaincy and my view point was received very nicely. There was no offence, no hesitation and not for once was I told that ‘you should not leave T20 captaincy’,” he had asserted.

Earlier, Ganguly, in an interview to PTI, said that he had spoken to Kohli and told him that two captains in the white ball format was not something that the selectors wanted as there would be ”too much of leadership.” Rohit Sharma is now the sole white-ball captain and has also been made Kohli’s deputy in the Test format.