Sourav Ganguly has denied role in Virat Kohli’s captaincy exit, says he was not interested in continuing. Ganguly cleared the air by saying – Kohli’s captaincy exit was his own choice, not ours: Ganguly. Further he said Virat was not interested in white ball captaincy.
Former India captain and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has clarified that he had no part in Virat Kohli’s decision to step down as the T20I and ODI captain of the national team. Ganguly said that Kohli was not keen on leading the side in the shorter formats and the board respected his choice.
Kohli’s captaincy exit was his own choice, not ours: Ganguly
Kohli had announced his decision to quit the T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup in October, citing workload management as the reason. However, he had expressed his desire to continue as the ODI captain and the Test captain. But the BCCI selectors decided to appoint Rohit Sharma as the captain for both the white-ball formats, while Kohli remained the Test captain.
This decision sparked a controversy as Kohli claimed that he was informed about his removal from the ODI captaincy only 90 minutes before the team selection for the South Africa tour. He also contradicted Saurav’s statement that the board had asked him to reconsider his decision to give up the T20I captaincy.
Saurav, however, maintained that he had no role in Kohli’s captaincy exit and that it was Kohli’s own call. “I didn’t remove him from captaincy. He was not interested in continuing. He wanted to give up T20 captaincy. We requested him to carry on but he didn’t want to,” Ganguly told reporters on Tuesday.
Ganguly also said that he had a good relationship with Kohli and that there was no rift between them. He said that he respected Kohli’s contribution to Indian cricket and hoped that he would continue to perform well as a batsman and a Test captain.
Kohli, who is currently in South Africa for a three-match Test series starting from December 26, has also said that he has no issues with Ganguly or the BCCI and that he was focused on his game. He said that he was happy to play under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy in the limited-overs formats and that he would support him in every way possible.
