The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has appointed Rohit Sharma as the captain of the ODI team in place of Virat Kohli. This is also true because Kohli had decided to step down from the T20 captaincy. He was expected to give up the 50-over captaincy soon after the BCCI made it clear that there would be no two different captains in the white-ball format. Rahul Dravid, the new coach of the Indian team, also agreed with this.
Now a decision has been taken on this and the BCCI has taken the curtain off many matters while making the announcement. In one line, he said that Rohit Sharma will now be the captain of both the ODI and T20 teams, while will also be the vice-captain of the Test team. Those with knowledge of this whole matter say, ‘It is fine. Rohit’s time has come and he should take full guard as captain. Virat should accept it, but the point of serious concern here is how the BCCI, especially (its president) Sourabhi Ganguly, resolved the issue.
Rohit got ODI captaincy after T20, big role in Test team too
Exactly 16 years and three months ago today, Ganguly (then the captain of Team India) was dropped from the team after a prolonged period of very poor form. The then coach Greg Chappell had written a scathing email to the BCCI explaining how Ganguly was not fit to lead the team and how his behavior was hurting the Indian team. After this Rahul Dravid got the captaincy.
In the struggle and difficult times, Ganguly found the BCCI standing by his side. Then Board President Ranbir Singh Mahendra issued a statement to the media in support of Ganguly in crisis and said that the coach and the cricketer should maintain a professional relationship. Due to the board’s support and tremendous efforts, Ganguly returned to the Indian team after ten months.
Not so with Kohli. He would be embarrassed not because of poor form, but because of being dropped from captaincy via an email. There was no discussion between the BCCI and Kohli regarding the change in captaincy. Given the Chappell and Ganguly case, this cannot be considered good off-the-field behavior from anywhere. Those with knowledge of this matter say – Kohli needs BCCI at the moment. What the board needs is to address Kohli’s embarrassment, his anger and frustration that he must be going through. Now the question arises whether Ganguly (BCCI President) will stand by his cricketer the way the board once stood by him.
Just as Ganguly had to play under the captaincy of Dravid, with whom he had good and bad relations while at the top of his career. Similarly, now Kohli has to play in the limited overs format under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. While Rohit has got a chance to show his excellent captaincy skills, on the other hand Kohli will get extra time to focus on the batting. However, here the board has to play a vital role in establishing the relationship between the two legendary players.
Whether talks took place between the BCCI President and Kohli before announcing the change of captaincy is not known. Cricket experts are concerned about this – Secretary Jay Shah and other BCCI office-bearers have administrative experience, but Ganguly (India captain and 116 Test veteran) has serious cricketing experience. Will he help Kohli get back into form given his experiences? There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Kohli (97 Tests, 254 ODIs and 95 T20 Internationals) is one of the best batsmen of this era. They need an experienced and persuasive player to help them. Who is better than Ganguly for this job?
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