Srinagar, January 25: India’s World Cup winning skipper Kapil Dev has suggested former Team India skipper Virat Kohli and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly to sort out difference between them and put Country before themselves.
“These days you do not get surprised by much. When he quit the T20I captaincy, one thought perhaps there was too much on his mind. From what we have read and heard, nobody wanted him to give up captaincy (then or now). He is a fantastic player; we should respect his decision,” Kapil Dev told The Week magazine.
In December, the BCCI sacked Kohli as India’s ODI captain, which was followed by a period of turmoil in Indian cricket. Ganguly and Kohli’s contradictory statements about BCCI’s reaction to Kohli’s decision divided the world, and when it seemed that all of this was water under the bridge, Kohli dropped another bombshell when he relinquished India’s Test captaincy as well. Just like that, the most successful Indian Test captain’s tenure was over.
Kapil feels that irrespective of the situations that led Kohli to resign as India’s captain, one should be respectful towards his decision given all that he has achieved for Indian cricket.
“They should have sorted out the issues between them. Pick up the phone, talk to each other, put the country and team before yourself. In the beginning, I also got everything I wanted. But sometimes, you may not get it. That should not mean that you leave the captaincy. If he has left it because of that, then I do not know what to say. He is a fabulous player; [I want to] watch him play so much more and score runs, especially in Test cricket,” Kapil mentioned.