India’s 1983 World Cup-winning captain, Kapil Dev, has expressed his discontent over the statement of Virat Kohli regarding the issue of captaincy changes before his departure to South Africa.
At the pre-departure press conference on Wednesday (December 15), Kohli countered BCCI President Sourav Ganguly’s statement that the board had requested him not to step down as T20I captain, which exposed the underlying tension between him and the administrators.
The Test skipper also claimed that he was informed one and a half hours before the announcement was made that he was been sacked as ODI captain and Rohit Sharma was appointed as India’s new skipper in limited-overs cricket.
However, the BCCI has not yet reacted to Kohli’s comments, with the Indian team having already left for the South Africa tour.
Reacting to the statement that exposed differences between Kohli and the BCCI, the legendary Kapil Dev said that the Indian Test skipper’s remarks were ill-timed as they were leaving to play a crucial Test series in South Africa.
He further called out on Kohli and Ganguly for their public remarks and urged the skipper to take control of the situation and think about the country while the truth will come out tomorrow.
Kapil told ABP News: “It is not good to point fingers on anybody at this point in time. The South Africa tour is coming and please pay attention to the tour. I would say the Board president is the Board president but yes the Indian cricket team captain is also a big thing. But talking badly about each other in public, I don’t think it is a good thing, whether it is Sourav or Kohli.”
The 62-year-old added, “Aap situation ko control kijiye, behtar ye hai ki aap desh ke baare mein sochiye (Please control the situation and it’s better to think about the country now). Jo galat hai woh kal pata chal hi jayega but I don’t think it is right to stoke a controversy before a tour.”
Notably, Team India departed for South Africa on Thursday for a three-match Test series beginning at Centurion on December 26. India and South Africa will also play three ODIs in January.
(With PTI Inputs)
