The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in its first major decision under new president Roger Binny decided to call for fresh applications for the positions of five national selectors and in the process sacked the entire panel, led by former fast bowler Chetan Sharma. The decision came in the wake of another T20 World Cup ouster in two consecutive years. While the Men in Blue failed to go even beyond the group stage last year, they lost in the semis to the eventual champions England in the semis, last week.
The moment the BCCI sent out a release, former Indian captain Virat Kohli started trending on social media. The fans were quick to remember the entire Kohli captaincy saga where he went from being a captain in all three formats to none of them.
Kohli had decided to give up T20 captaincy after the T20 World Cup 2021, which he had announced even before the tournament. However, a month later, he was removed from ODI captaincy as well by the selectors as they wanted one white-ball captain. While the erstwhile BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and Sharma had said that they asked Kohli to reconsider his decision of giving up captaincy in T20s, the former captain contradicted both of them saying that he was informed just 90 minutes before the meeting that he was being removed as the ODI captain as well. A month later, following loss to South Africa, Kohli gave up captaincy in the longest format as well.
Now, with the BCCI’s latest decision, the Indian fans were content that to right the wrongs, the new president is taking several key decisions and Kohli after what he went through in a period of three-four months is getting justice. Here are some of the reactions:
Chetan Sharma-led five-member selection panel was appointed in December 20. The panel included Abey Kuruvilla, Debasis Mohanty, Sunil Joshi and Harvinder Singh. While Kuruvilla had completed 5 years as a selector in late 2021, the four-member panel has been in the operations since before being removed.
