Former India skipper Kapil Dev has urged star cricketer Virat Kohli and BCCI to sort out their issues for the betterment of Indian cricket. Since Kohli’s withdrawal from T20I captaincy after the 2021 T20 World Cup, few issues seemed to have taken place between the two parties.
Firstly, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly stated that he had asked Kohli not to step down from the T20I captaincy. Then, ahead of the South Africa tour, the ODI captaincy was taken off from Kohli and given to opener Rohit Sharma.
However, Kohli held a fiery press conference wherein he denied Ganguly’s claims stating that nobody had asked him not to give up the captaincy. The 33-year-old then mentioned that the chief selector, Chetan Sharma, had informed him about the selectors’ decision to remove him as ODI captain only 90 minutes before they sat down to pick the Test squad for the South Africa tour.
Kapil reckoned that irrespective of the circumstances that led Kohli to resign as India’s captain, one should respect his decision as the Delhi-lad has achieved much more for Indian cricket.
“These days, you do not get surprised by much. When he quit the T20I captaincy, one thought perhaps there was too much on his mind. From what we have read and heard, nobody wanted him to give up captaincy (then or now). He is a fantastic player; we should respect his decision,” said Kapil in an interview with The Week magazine.
After India lost the Test series against South Africa, Kohli took everyone by surprise as he stepped down from captaincy in the longest format as well. Kapil feels that both Kohli and BCCI should settle all the issues as they have to put the country first before indulging in any other activity.
“They should have sorted out the issues between them. Pick up the phone, talk to each other, but the country and team before yourself. In the beginning, I also got everything I wanted. But sometimes, you may not get it. That should not mean that you leave the captaincy. If he has left it because of that, then I do not know what to say. He is a fabulous player; [I want to] watch him play so much more and score runs, especially in Test cricket,” added Kapil.
