Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria has questioned the BCCI and Indian selectors’ decision to remove Virat Kohli as India’s ODI captain earlier this week and said that they were wrong in their manner to sack one of the greatest cricketers in the world.
He further said that the BCCI was harsh in removing Kohli without informing him, as they ended his near five-year-long tenure as India's limited-overs captain with just a tweet.
However, Kaneria admitted that Kohli hasn't won an ICC trophy as India's captain, but said that the way he led the Indian cricket team over the years was "phenomenal" and the right-hander deserved to get more respect, but the BCCI didn’t respect their "superstar".
Kaneria said on his YouTube channel: “Did the BCCI do the right thing with Kohli? I don't think so. They did not give him respect. He has gotten India 65 wins as captain, the fourth-highest by any India skipper. The thing is why you didn’t inform someone whose record as captain isn't bad at all. Second most-highest runs as India ODI skipper. Based on his record, he deserved respect. Sure, he hasn't won an ICC trophy as captain but the way he has led is phenomenal.”
However, the BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly, had said that Kohli was kept in the loop about the decision, but the former spinner feels the latter should have been clearly told that they wanted Rohit Sharma as their new white-ball captain.
He added, “The only two superstars going around in world cricket at the moment are Virat Kohli and Babar Azam. You should respect your superstars. The BCCI were harsh in removing Kohli without informing him. Sourav Ganguly is such a big name, a former captain. He should have communicated to Virat that we would like Rohit to captain. Another thing that went against him was that Kohli was not scoring runs as big and fluently as he used to.”
