BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal rubbished all reports of senior Indian team players complaining to the board about the attitude and captaincy of Virat Kohli and said that the BCCI is "peeved" over obscure and unsubstantiated media reports doing the rounds lately.
The BCCI, once again for the record, had no role to play in Kohli resigning as captain of the T20 team and it was the cricketer's own decision, Dhumal was quoted as saying.
It was reported by multiple media outlets that the likes of R Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were amongst that a bunch of players who called up BCCI secretary Jay Shah to complain about Virat Kohli and his captaincy.
When he resigned as T20I captain on September 16, certain media reports claimed that Kohli had gone to the selectors and asked that Rohit Sharma be removed as vice-captain of the team.
"The media must stop writing this rubbish. Let me say this on the record that no Indian cricketer has made any complaint to the BCCI - written or verbal. The BCCI can't keep answering every false report that keeps appearing. The other day, we saw some reports saying there will be changes in India's World Cup squad. Who said that?" BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal told TOI on Wednesday.
Dhumal had previously denied a Times of India (TOI) report suggesting that Kohli would step down as India's white-ball captain.
Here's what the TOI report said verbatim: "Virat himself will make the announcement. He is of the view that he needs to concentrate on his batting and go back to becoming what he's always been - the best batsman in the world. The decision to quit (white-ball) captaincy is his alone".
To this, Dhumal said: "The media asked me if the BCCI had taken a decision and I said no because that was true - the BCCI had not taken any decision or even discussed it. Eventually, Virat took his own decision and conveyed it to the BCCI and that was his call. Today, the same media is saying players complained to the BCCI. So, on behalf of the board, I can tell you, there have been no complaints. Is there any confusion?"
R Ashwin rubbishes reports suggesting he complained about Virat Kohli to BCCI
The BCCI says it finds it extremely fascinating that hours after Kohli resigned as T20 captain, a segment of the media seems to know almost everything about the Indian team. But 24 hours before he resigned, nobody had a clue that there were complaints against him.
TOI also reported that several individuals who hold positions of responsibility in Indian cricket had said that Kohli wanted to quit white-ball captaincy. However, now every single one of those individuals has denied that players have filed any complaint whatsoever against the current Indian captain, not with the secretary's office or with any other office within the Board.
"This kind of reporting harms Indian cricket more than anything else. We can understand if senior journalists - who have followed the game for a very long time and tracked it so devotedly - believe the Indian team should do this or do that. That's an opinion and we respect that. It's an observation and that's their job. I myself enjoy reading good reports. But to concoct tales and say this person said this or that person said that, without substantiating it, is not done," Dhumal further said.
(TOI inputs)
