The apex cricket board of India, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, has been at the center of the strangest controversies in this century of cricket. Confusion all around, the fact remains that there exists no existence of intimacy between the Cricket Board and the Indian Cricket Team.
Through a course of an interminable dispute between the board and the helm of the team, BCCI led by Sourav Ganguly has finally become a mere puppet at the hands of basic politics.
The fact that Virat Kohli was dropped as the captain from both ODI, as well as Test captaincy at the drop of a hat without prior intimation, provides a fair microscopic view into the course of such happenings. However, it is the state of the BCCI that has become fairly worrying in recent times.
Kohli’s Conflict With The Board
The Indian National Cricket Team has found itself on the front page for almost always the wrong reasons, in recent memory. With the recent debacle faced by the team at the very recent T20 World Cup, it is only fair to state that anyone could have predicted a certain change in management.
Unfortunately, no one could have predicted that the change would come in the form of Virat Kohli being stripped off his captain’s armband. However, the buck never stopped at having Kohli losing white ball captaincy, rather it only stretched further into a saga of incompetence and miscommunication.
On the 8th of December, as the BCCI revealed the squad for India’s Test tour of South Africa, the most substantial news, however, came in the form of a surprising captaincy change.
The declaration stated that Kohli had been asked to step down from the helm of both the T20 and ODI teams, making him the captain for only the Test-playing side. In his place, Rohit Sharma was appointed captain for the limited-overs white-ball game, viz-a-viz, ODI, and T20.
However, the exchange of captaincy armbands did not end here as one would expect it to. The fact stood that the BCCI led by Sourav Ganguly had frantically led itself to commit a ginormous folly in the form of failing to provide sufficient communication to Kohli upon his discharge.
Kohli had earlier posted a picture on Instagram concerning him letting go of the responsibility of captaining the T20 side, after suffering a setback in the form of the T20i World Cup. However, he had stated that he would prefer leading the Indian National team’s Test and ODI sides. He said;
“Understanding workload is a very important thing and considering my immense workload over the last 8-9 years playing all 3 formats and captaining regularly for last 5-6 years, I feel I need to give myself space to be fully ready to lead the Indian team in Test and ODI cricket.”
It was elaborated by the BCCI that they had actively taken the decision of changing the captaincy for all white-ball formats. Sourav Ganguly, the chairman of the BCCI, elaborated upon the ruling as it was the belief of the entire Board that it wouldn’t reflect well on the morale of the cricket team to have two different captains for limited-overs cricket. Ganguly stated;
“He stepped down as T20I captain and the selectors decided not to split limited-overs captaincy, opting for a complete separation. The bottom line is that there can’t be two white-ball captains.”
Ganguly had further stated that the decision had been intimated with the Test skipper, and they had further asked Kohli to rethink his decision of stepping down from T20 captaincy. Yet, upon the further elucidation of the entire story, he contradicted Ganguly’s claims as he stated that no ask had been made by the Board of him.
Adding further hurt to Kohli’s tale, new documents and records have been uncovered that, allegedly, state that his expulsion from the helm of the cricket team’s captain had been planned for the past four months.
Also Read: Here Are A Few Instances Where The Indian Cricket Fandom Became Seriously Toxic
Is Ganguly A Mere Pawn At The Hands Of Jay Shah?
It is no mere statement when one states that the Secretary of the BCCI, Jay Shah, is a product of nepotism, owing solely to the fact that the man has zilch experience in the field and yet he rules at the top. He is possibly the reason why the ‘Dada’ we know has become a mere shadow of himself in the past few years.
From covering up for his daughter’s political leanings to becoming a front-page headline for the worst mixup in the history of Indian cricket, the man has seen it all.
Kohli’s arrival at the very forefront of hate unfold as he shielded his teammate Mohammed Shami from the saffron-bearing entourage of hate-mongers was as courageous as any picture of strong leadership would be. However, the board did not believe it to be so. Shami’s off-day on the pitch at the T20i World Cup had been frighteningly uncharacteristic for the pacer.
Yet, the trolls began referring to him as a traitor and a Pakistani. Kohli arrived at his side and despite the media manager’s best efforts to shield him from such questions, it was in vain. That is exactly how a captain acts and possibly how the Prince of Bengal would act back in his heydays.
Further elaboration upon the suddenness of the decision came in the form of Kohli’s testimony concerning the process of his ousting;
“I was never told not to give up T20I captaincy. There was no prior communication to me at all since I announced the T20I captaincy decision until the 8th of December, where I got a call before the selection meeting.”
The era of the BCCI has become one of favoritism and it is sparsely a critic of Rohit Sharma, rather, it is a critique of the Board’s functioning.
It’s unfortunate that the fearless, revolutionary Sourav Ganguly from Lords died the moment he took another cap of leadership.
Image Sources: Google Images
Sources: Cricbouncer, Cricket Addictor, The Indian Express
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This post is tagged under: virat kohli, dhoni, ms dhoni, cricket, hate trolls, trolling, internet trolls, rohit sharma, sourav ganguly, bcci sourav ganguly, indian cricket board, indian national cricket team, jay shah, Mohammed shami, ICC t20 world cup, south Africa vs India, praetorians, lords, boys in blue
