BCCI chief selector Chetan Sharma resigns

Chetan Sharma’s position as chairman of national selection committee became untenable after his alleged ‘loose talk’ during a sting operation. Sharma claimed that alleged strained relationship between Ganguly and Kohli involved ‘ego issues’.

The chief selector claimed that Kohli had started considering himself “bigger than the Board” and had tried to “hit back” at the former BCCI president as he felt that Ganguly had removed him from ODI captaincy.

“When the player becomes popular, he considers himself to be bigger than the Board and thinks that nobody can touch him. He feels that cricket in India would stop without him. But has that ever happened? Some of our biggest cricketing stars came and went but cricket remained the same. So he (Kohli) tried to hit back at the (former) president at that time. It was a damaging controversy. It was a classic case of a player going against the BCCI. The president represents the BCCI, isn’t it? As to whose fault it was will be judged in time but it was an attack on the BCCI. All our players are discouraged from doing this because the loss will be theirs as everyone will go against them even if the president is at the fault. There has to be some respect for the chair,” said Sharma during the sting operation.

He further claimed that ahead of the 2022 India tour of South Africa in January, Kohli brought up the matter of being removed from ODI captaincy on purpose in front of reporters because he felt that Ganguly had played a role in removing him from leadership in the 50-over format. He also accused Kohli of lying in front of the media about being removed from ODI captaincy without any communication, in order to defame Ganguly.

“Virat was going to South Africa as captain (of the Test side). Press conferences should be about team matters and not selections. There was no need to bring up this topic (Virat being removed from ODI captaincy) during the press conference. But he did so intentionally. He felt that he had lost his ODI captaincy because of Ganguly. Ganguly hold told reporters that he had asked him not to step down (as ODI captain) but Virat claimed before the media that the president never said this to him. This created a major controversy,” Chetan said.

It is understood that Chetan being caught in a sting operation hasn’t gone down too well with the top brass of the BCCI but the incident might have a far reaching impact on the relationship between media on one hand and the Indian team and selectors on the other.”No player or selector will be comfortable on sharing a cordial relationship even with well meaning journalists after this sting as the trust factor has been compromised,” a senior BCCI source PTI on conditions of anonymity.

While Chetan’s claims are mostly been taken as loose talk and stuff that was already known in cricket fraternity, he had certainly lost trust and respect of the players.

“Chetan spoke a bit too much. None of the top India players talk to him. Have you seen him speak to Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma publicly in any training session. He would stand in one corner during T20 World Cup in Australia and no one bothered to speak to him,” another BCCI source who was present in Australia said.

PTI reported that Sharma was set to be given a chance to defend himself but whether he would be able to sit across the table with Rohit Sharma or Hardik Pandya is the question. The bigger question is whether the players would want to have any engagement with him.

(With PTI inputs)