EXCLUSIVE: In Sourav Ganguly vs Virat Kohli Row, Chief Selector Chetan Sharma Reveals former captain LIED against BCCI President

Source: Twitter

Former India skipper Virat Kohli was one of the most successful captains in Indian cricket history. But his exit from captaincy in 2021 was marred by Kohli’s fallout with former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly.

In an exclusive sting carried out by Zee News Channel, chief selector Chetan Sharma revealed that Kohli ‘lied’ when he told the media before the South Africa tour that Ganguly didn’t try to stop him from quitting T20 captaincy after the T20 World Cup 2021. At the end of the press conference in 2021, Kohli told the media that he was told by the selectors that he will no longer continue as ODI captain as well.

“Any row between player and BCCI President is dangerous as it becomes players vs BCCI. Out of this who is wrong is judged later, but it becomes an attack on BCCI directly. All players are warned that the harm will come to players only,” Chetan Sharma revealed in a sting on Zee News Channel on Tuesday (February 14).

“Virat Kohli felt he lost the captaincy because of BCCI President. There were 9 people in the selection committee video conference, Ganguly may have told him ‘think about it once’. I think Kohli didn’t hear it, there were 9 others there including myself and all other selectors, BCCI officials – Kohli might not have heard him,” the chairman of selectors added.

Zee News __ ____ ____ ______, ______ _____ __ ____ BCCI __ ___ #GameOver @preetiddahiya @DChaurasia2312 pic.twitter.com/D3Mf3YdC6x

— Zee News (@ZeeNews) February 14, 2023

Chetan Sharma felt that Kohli believed that he was ‘above the game’ and the PC that was supposed to be team-oriented turned into a briefing about his captaincy.

“The PC before leaving for South Africa is about the team but why he bought the topic of captaincy I don’t know, maybe Kohli did it on purpose. The truth is Kohli was lying, Ganguly told him to think over it. Why Kohli lied, no one knows till now. It became a controversy, it was Board vs Player.

“Why he lied, maybe he felt Sourav Ganguly played a big hand in Virat Kohli losing the white-ball captaincy,” Chetan Sharma added.

Kohli subsequently quit the Test captaincy as well after the South Africa tour. Rohit Sharma has taken over from Kohli as the captain in all four formats of the game.