Ganguly and Kohli: The sacking of Virat Kohli as the Indian Team’s ODI captain has sparked a huge controversy on social media for the last few days. Axing Kohli when he was willing to lead the team and not holding proper discussions with him made BCCI face the heat of fans. But this is not the first time a successful captain faced the wrath of BCCI. Earlier, Sourav Ganguly faced a similar fate in 2005-06.
Ganguly and Kohli
A popular sports reporter K Shriniwas Rao drew parallels between the current situation and Ganguly’s situation back then, on social media. According to it, when John Wright’s tenure as the head coach ended in 2005, Ganguly recommended Greg Chappell for the position. BCCI obliged his request and appointed Chappell as the coach. After a few months, Ganguly faced a captaincy ban due to his slow-overrates. Dravid was made the new captain.
That was the first phase of Ganguly’s downfall as a player and a captain. Soon, he returned as a player and as a skipper as well. But due to his poor form, he was removed from the team. On top of that, things didn’t go well between Chappell and Ganguly. That damaged Ganguly’s career even further. Dravid was made the permanent captain and Ganguly’s dreams of captaining the Indian side for the 2007 World Cup got shattered.
When India performed badly in the World Cup ’07, Dravid resigned to his captaincy. After a few months, Chappell was also removed. Anil Kumble was made the interim captain. MS Dhoni was groomed as the next skipper. Thus, keeping up with competition from youngsters became difficult for Ganguly and his career had a dramatic ending.
It was stated that Virat Kohli should be given an explanation for his removal as the captain because it may affect his performance and the team’s performance in the coming days, just like the way things happened during Ganguly’s era.