Was the Commotion over Virat Kohli's ODI Captaincy Avoidable by the BCCI?

The practice of unceremoniously dismissing Indian cricket captains is not alien to the BCCI.

Image used for representation only. 

(Photo: Chetan Bhakuni/The Quint)

All is not well with the Indian cricket as the men's team begin a difficult South Africa tour with a Test and ODI series on the heels of an explosive press conference by Virat Kohli just 24 hours ago.

Ahead of the tour, on 15 December, Kohli made spoke at length about the process that was followed in his dismissal as the ODI captain and openly contradicted BCCI head Sourav Ganguly’s version of the T20 captaincy change, stating that no one had asked him stay back in charge once he had made up his mind.

And adding fuel to fire, Kohli further clarified that he was informed about his dismissal as ODI captain by the selection committee only 90 minutes prior to the selection meeting for the Test squad on 8 December.

And that contrary to rumours and media reports, he was and still is available for the ODI leg of the tour and never communicated with the BCCI asking for a rest. At the end of the press conference, it was his word against the BCCI president and Kohli was clearly unhappy and ready to take a stand.

While Kohli said that he accepts the BCCI’s decision, the practice of unceremoniously dismissing Indian cricket captains is not alien, with many like Ganguly and Tendulkar being at the receiving end.

So what does the poor handling of dismissing captains speak of the BCCI? And will this off-field drama right before a crucial Test series affect the mood in the dressing room?

To discuss this, we spoke to sports analyst Chandresh Narayan and Abhishek Mukherjee, the Chief Editor for Cricket News.