The Virat Kohli-Sourav Ganguly spat seems to have been murkier than expected as new details have emerged that the BCCI president had apparently drafted a show-cause notice to Kohli, after the latter's explosive press conference in December. He was dissuaded from issuing it by the board.
Kohli had contradicted Ganguly's claim that he had asked Kohli not to relinquish the T20 national team captaincy. Kohli said that nobody from the board had urged him to reconsider. He also said that he was subsequently told about his removal from ODI captaincy just 90 minutes before the official announcement.
The comments by the Test captain as his team was about to leave on a tour to South Africa exposed the rift between the board and the player.
A BCCI source told news portal India Ahead that Ganguly was unhappy with Kohli's comments and wanted to issue a show-cause notice, but the BCCI members thought it would be inappropriate ahead of the South Africa tour.
Kohli had reportedly reached out to Delhi and District Cricket Association president Rohan Jaitley—son of Arun Jaitley, who was once close to the former captain—to connect him with Jay Shah and diffuse the situation, according to NewsLaundry.
The situation is far from ideal as the BCCI and Ganguly have taken on one of world cricket's most powerful figures over the last few months. With pressure mounting on Kohli, he announced that he would be giving up the Test captaincy as well, following the 2-1 series loss to South Africa.
The 33-year-old played under K.L. Rahul's captaincy—who is standing in for the injured Rohit Sharma—in the first ODI against South Africa, which India lost. The second of the three ODIs will be played today, but the mood in the camp is anything but pleasant with all that has transpired over the last two months.
