'Ganguly Had No Business To Speak On Behalf Of Selection Committee': Vengsarkar On Virat Kohli Captaincy Row

The 1983 World Cup winner said that Virat Kohli deserved a better send-off "for what he did for Indian cricket". 

(File Photos/ Getty Images)

Former chief selector of the Indian cricket team, Dilip Vengsarkar, hit out at Sourav Ganguly for how things unfolded in the Virat Kohli's ODI captaincy row. He felt that the BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly, should not have spoken on behalf of the selection committee. 

The 1983 World Cup winner also said that Virat Kohli deserved a better send-off "for what he did for Indian cricket". 

"The thing is that Ganguly had no business to speak on behalf of the selection committee. Ganguly is the president of BCCI. Any issue about selection or captaincy, it's the chairman of the selection committee who should speak," Vengsarkar told Khaleej Times. 

Just a day after Virat Kohli was scrapped of India's ODI captaincy, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had told the media that he told Virat Kohli to not step down as T20I captain as the BCCI plans to have only one white-ball captain. Virat Kohli's statements suggested the complete opposite when he said that "no communication was made" in the matter of T20I captaincy.

"Ganguly spoke about the whole thing, obviously Virat wanted to make his case clear. I believe it should have been between the chairman of the selection committee and the captain. A captain is selected or removed by the selection committee, that's not Ganguly's jurisdiction at all," the former cricketer said.

Vengsarkar said that the Indian captain deserved a better send-off. "It has always been the case right from 1932 (when the first Indian team was selected). Once we saw four captains in five Test matches. But yes, things should change now. Kohli, you have to respect him, he has done so much for the country, so much for Indian cricket. But how they dealt with him, it must have definitely hurt him," he added.