Former women's cricketer and ex-COA member Diana Edulji finds Indian captain Virat Kohli publicly expressing his displeasure at his team's cramped schedule "strange" having himself approved the itinerary as part of an important group of people two years ago. 

Edulji, who relinquished her post along with COA chief Vinod Rai with the establishment of the new BCCI regime led by president Sourav Ganguly, informed that Kohli, and former skipper MS Dhoni and head coach Ravi Shastri, had okayed the FTP till 2023 during a meeting with cricket officials at the Taj Mansingh Hotel in Delhi on November 30, 2017.

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"Virat complaining now is definitely strange, I feel that he is playing so much of cricket that he forgot that he has given OK for such a schedule. We didn’t force this on the players," Edulji told Indian Express. "They knew that they would be landing in New Zealand three days before. It’s written in the minutes. Only after they (players) gave their consent was it approved."

Edulji further cleared the air saying the proposed FTP, later accepted by the ICC and rest of its full-member boards, wasn’t drafted by the CoA but by BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and cricket administration head Gaurav Saxena, who had presented it at the meeting. The chart of this FTP was given to the top players and the management for approval. 

"We had asked if the players wanted to change anything. We passed the FTP only after the players and the coach okayed it," she said. 

Kohli, before the first T20I in Auckland, told reporters "it’s getting closer and closer to landing at the stadium straight (from the airport)" as the Indian team went to the Kiwi shores for a six-week-long tour just days after finishing the ODI series versus Australia that was played at the back end of a four-month-long home season, also including series against South Africa, Bangladesh, West Indies and Sri Lanka. 

Proteas will come back for three ODIs after this New Zealand tour before the focus shifts to the IPL, leaving players almost no time to rest. 

“Hopefully, this will be taken into consideration in the future,” Edulji added. "Before making the statement, Kohli should have thought that he was part of the discussion where this FTP was formed."

As per the minute-details noted by Indian Express of the meeting where this FTP was finalised upon, Rai said:  "FTP (2019-2023). Mr Rahul Johri presented the proposal for International FTP. The Team Representatives [Kohli, Dhoni, and Shastri] appreciated the efforts of the BCCI team in addressing their concerns on the high number of playing days per season, long overseas tours and preparation time before a marquee series/event and gave their consent to the proposed FTP."

"We discussed how many T20s they are going to play, how many ODIs, how many home matches, the gaps between tournaments," Edulji added. "We have always made sure that players got what they wanted, their comfort was top priority."

(Inputs from Indian Express)