Former Indian Test cricketer Aakash Chopra believes that the captaincy saga between Virat Kohli and the BCCI could have been handled better if both the parties had communicated better.
It all started when the BCCI announced that Rohit Sharma would take over the ODI captaincy on the same day when the Test squad for South Africa tour had been announced. Then the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said in the interview that he personally requested (to Virat) to reconsider the resignation from the T20 captaincy as the selectors wanted the same captain in both white-ball formats.
The whole saga heated up with a fiery press conference by Virat Kohli, before departure to South Africa. In a candid conversation with the media, Virat Kohli contradicted Ganguly’s statement and also showed disappointment with the way he was sacked from ODI captaincy.
Aakash Chopra believes that the whole matter could have been handled more professionally. In his Youtube Channel, he said that both the parties unnecessarily stretched the matter.
“It could have definitely been handled better, let’s be very very honest. There are a lot of things which could have been better where they could have asked or had a discussion.” Aakash Chopra said.
Also, the cricketer-turned commentator suggested that Virat Kohli could have resolved the matter with a simple phone call to any BCCI official.
“You don’t actually need to ask when you are removing someone as a captain. You just need to tell but it could have been handled a little better, that you acknowledge that the captain has done very well but now you are moving ahead and all of that. That communication could have happened.” Chopra said.
“Virat Kohli could have also picked up the phone and spoken to them, everyone whose statements he didn’t like because it was not only sources but it came from the horse’s mouth, there were BCCI officials in that.” he added further.
Chopra also opined that stretching this matter would make things dirtier in the public’s eyes. So he suggested both parties behave like grown-ups.
“So let’s discuss between the two of us like grown-up adults and the BCCI officials could have also done the same thing. Washing dirty linen in public is never a great thing. The rumor markets are again hot and then the same sources, the same drama, we come back to square one, which we don’t want.” he concluded.
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