Virat Kohli vs BCCI: When current president Sourav Ganguly was at receiving end of selectors’ sword, 16 years back

Virat Kohli clarified in an explosive press conference on Wednesday (December 15) that he had no discussion the BCCI regarding ODI captaincy and no one from the board asked him to reconsider T20 captaincy too, contradicting Ganguly’s statements.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly. (Source: Twitter)

It is almost 16 years to the day – December 14, 2005 – when the chairman of selector back then Kiran More, showed former India skipper Sourav Ganguly the exit door in front of a packed Ferozeshah Kotla media room. Ganguly, who had already been replaced as the captain of the side by present head coach Rahul Dravid, lost his place in the side even after scoring batting 40 and 39 in two innings against Sri Lanka in the second Test of the series.

Former India wicketkeeper More had revealed back then that the selectors were looking to build a side for the future and Ganguly didn’t fit the scheme of things with upcoming tourns of Pakistan and England. “We are looking at players who can perform over the period of 5-6 years. The team has been selected keeping in mind future series against Pakistan and England,” More said while declaring the squad for the third Test in Ahmedabad back then.

The most depressing aspect of the selection committee’s decision is the convoluted manner in which the issue of team selection has been dealt with, starting from keeping Ganguly out of the ODI squad to finally dropping him from the Test side.

More’s press conference had come minutes after Dravid had addressed the media following India’s massive 188-run in the second Test. “Sourav played very well in the match. He should be in the Test match squad in future also,” Dravid had said just minutes earlier.

Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif were Ganguly’s replacement in the Test side back then but it’s another matter that Ganguly managed to stage a comeback into the side after a few months. For a decorated cricketer like Ganguly, who has seen such upheaval in his career, it is now indeed disappointing how he has handled the matter of Virat Kohli’s ODI captaincy as a BCCI president.

Kohli clarified in an explosive press conference on Wednesday (December 15) that he had no discussion the BCCI regarding ODI captaincy and no one from the board asked him to reconsider T20 captaincy too, contradicting Ganguly’s statements.

The BCCI practice of selectors not speaking to the media in the recent years has further complicated the situation with ‘sources’ ruling the roost in most stories related to the Kohli ODI captaincy muddle. Even a day after Kohli’s revelation, we have heard nothing from the Indian cricket board apart from the one-line statement that Rohit Sharma is replacing Virat Kohli as the ODI cricket captain.

While board politics is nothing new in Indian cricket, the Kohli vs Ganguly saga has highlighted that more things change, more they remain the same in this country!