Asia Cup 2018: BCCI slams broadcasters for 'weirdly' questioning Virat Kohli's absence

BCCI has made it clear to the ACC that the broadcaster cannot decide or dictate selection policies

Virat Kohli’s absence in the ongoing Asia Cup has disappointed the host broadcasters of the tournament, Star India. Hence they decided to write to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) as they felt that India have not fielded their best team for the biggest tournament in Asia.

When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) came to know about broadcaster’s weird complaint, CEO Rahul Johri strongly put his foot down and told the ACC that the broadcaster has no right decide or dictate selection policies at the first place.

In reply to mail sent by ACC official Thusith Perera, Johri said,

“Kindly note that the team selected by BCCI selection committee (an expert body comprising of former cricketers) to participate in the Asia Cup as announced on 1 September 2018 is the best available team.

“Please also take note that selection of the best available team for participation in a tournament is the sole prerogative of the selection committee of BCCI. It is not open for Asian Cricket Council or its broadcaster to insist on the selection of any particular player and/or to question the expert opinion of the selection committee as to which is the best available team for a particular tournament. Needless to add, this email is being issued without prejudice to BCCI’s rights and contentions in law, all of which are expressly reserved.”

Earlier the broadcasters wrote to ACC citing their failure to follow the agreement which said that the council would ensure that best available teams should form the part of the Asia Cup.

“We would like to bring to your notice that our media rights agreement dated June 29, 2017 (the “MRA”) with the Asian Cricket Council (the “ACC”) requires that the ACC ensures that the best available teams from each of the participating nations including India should form a part of the Asia Cup. Virat Kohli has been the most prolific run scorer in world cricket in the recent past. His presence in the Indian team and his aggressive captaincy has a dramatic impact on the outcome of each event.

“In our view, this announcement about the absence of one of the world’s best batsmen from this edition of the Asia Cup, only 15 days before the commencement of the Asia Cup, is a serious dent to us (the event broadcaster) and will severely impact our ability to monetize and generate revenues from the tournament,” Star wrote to ACC official Perera.

The BCCI decided to rest Virat Kohli for the mega Asian tournament considering the workload as he has been playing continuously for quite some time.