Read the conversation between Chetan Sharma and the undercover reporter below:
Reporter: Sir can you tell us about the controversy involving the Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly which was raised when you became the chairman of selectors?
Chetan Sharma: I think the main reason for a big controversy would be when there’s a disagreement between two people which here would be the player and the board president.
Chetan Sharma: The BCCI holds a lot of power and when controversy arises it is very bad for the player as BCCI goes against the player. And then it doesn’t matter who’s at fault because it feels like a direct attack on the BCCI. We always advise all the players that do not get themselves in any kind of trouble because it is only going to affect their career and damage it. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault. But then, after gaining little experience, players start to feel that they possess a lot of authority that even the board can’t do anything to them which leads them to the thought that they are untouchable and that he’s so significant that without him the cricket team will not survive. However, there are many successful cricketers which have come and gone and cricket remains the same.
Chetan Sharma: Sourav Ganguly was also the captain and he was always acknowledged as one of the best and successful captains we ever had. Virat Kohli feels that he is one of the best captains. And some sort of miscommunication happened which led to this controversy between the two.
Reporter: What was the reason behind it?
Chetan Sharma: Nobody Knows that except him. I think he felt that the ODI captaincy he lost was because of the president of the BCCI. But Ganguly said that he tried to convince Virat Kohli not to leave when Virat Kohli was Suggesting him to leave the T20i Captaincy.
Reporter: Which means Ganguly didn’t want Kohli to leave?
Chetan Sharma: This is what he said but then Kohli comes and makes a statement that he was never told by the president not to leave. That’s what created the whole controversy.
Reporter: Then who was lying?
Chetan Sharma: Sourav Ganguly mentioned it to Virat Kohli to think about his decision again but Virat seems to claim that he didn’t hear it. When Sourav Ganguly mentioned to him reconsidering, 9 people were there I was there; the selectors were there. So there’s a chance that Virat didn’t hear it or
Reporter: So there’s a chance that Virat Lied?
Chetan Sharma: Virat thought that Ganguly was trying to remove him from white ball captaincy
Reporter: Sourav Ganguly was in favor of Rohit Sharma?
Chetan Sharma: Only he can answer that question
Reporter: Players hide their injuries and play?
Chetan Sharma: Well there are a handful of players who do that. No one wants to leave an opportunity so some players take injections instead of painkillers which cannot be detected by the agency. They do this on their own and we never even know about it. As we can talk about Bumrah he wasn’t able to bend but then he arrived for the match and was fit but in between the game he got uncomfortable and was sent for the scan which made us reevaluate the decision of sending him as a part of world cup squad because there we cannot replace him.
Chetan Sharma: No player wants to leave an opportunity because they know if they get replaced and the other player turns out to be performing really well they’ll be out of consideration for the next 2 years. That’s why no player wants to get replaced
Reporter: Is there favoritism in the team?
Chetan Sharma: No. There are likes and dislikes, everyone has a different viewpoint. There’s no favoritism This is the wrong word.
