‘It is important to have harmony to sort out all issues’ - Syed Kirmani on the tussle between Virat Kohli and BCCI

The things that have happened in the recent few days in Indian cricket have left the fans as well as former cricketers in shock. The entire saga of how Virat Kohli was removed from captaincy and his statements in contrast to BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has definitely cleared that all is not well.

While Ganguly claimed that he personally requested Kohli not to relinquish the T20I captaincy, Virat Kohli stated that there was no such talk with him. Former Indian wicketkeeper and member of 1983 World Cup squad Syed Kirmani gave his point of view on this controversy.

On Sunday, he spoke that Kohli and the BCCI top management should reconcile their differences to put an end to the issues that have surfaced since the former’s ouster as ODI captain. “It is important to have harmony among one another, it is important to communicate before you take an important decision. Egos play a very big role in an individual’s life.

“That should not be there, Kohli is a powerful player. The selection committee and BCCI President have their power, it is important to have harmony to sort out all the issues,” Kirmani said as quoted by NDTV.

What did Kohli and Ganguly say?

After Kohli announced his decision of stepping down from the Indian T20I team captaincy, Ganguly spoke that he had a discussion with Kohli regarding the leadership change. Ganguly also mentioned that he had requested Virat not to take the decision of giving up the captaincy.

“It’s a call that the BCCI and the selectors took together. Actually, the BCCI had requested Virat to not step down as the T20I skipper but obviously, he did not agree. And the selectors then did not feel it right to have two different captains for two white-ball formats,” Ganguly had said.

During the press conference before the South Africa tour, Kohli cleared that he never had such a discussion, and no one asked him not to leave the captaincy.

“Whatever was said about the communication that happened during the decision that was made was inaccurate. I was contacted one-and-a-half hours before the selection meeting on 8th for the Test series,” said Kohli.