Chief selector of the Indian cricket team and former Test cricketer Chetan Sharma made shocking revelations in a sting operation conducted by Zee News Channel. Chetan Sharma stated that Virat Kohli “lied” when he informed the media before the South Africa tour that the then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly didn’t attempt to discourage him from resigning as T20 captain after the T20 World Cup in 2021.
In 2021, Virat Kohli informed the media that he had been notified by the selectors that he would no longer serve as the team’s ODI captain. The sting operation surfaced on Tuesday, 14th February 2023.
Chetan Sharma said, “Any row between player and BCCI President is dangerous as it becomes players vs BCCI. Who is wrong is judged later, but it becomes an attack on BCCI directly. All players are warned that the harm from such things will come to players only.”
Chetan Sharma added, “Virat Kohli felt he lost the captaincy because of BCCI President. There were 9 people in the selection committee video conference, Ganguly may have told him ‘think about it once’. I think Kohli didn’t hear it, there were 9 others there including myself and all other selectors, BCCI officials – Kohli might not have heard him.”
Chetan Sharma further said, “The press conference before leaving for South Africa was about the team but why he brought the topic of captaincy I don’t know, maybe Kohli did it on purpose. The truth is that Kohli was lying, Ganguly told him to think over it. Why Kohli lied, no one knows till now. It became a controversy, it was Board vs Player. Why he lied, maybe he felt Sourav Ganguly played a big hand in Virat Kohli losing the white-ball captaincy. Don’t say that selectors were favoring Rohit Sharma. You tell people that Virat Kohli was not liked. It is exactly the reverse.”
Chetan Sharma said, “We have to decide who will play for India. We have to decide who is the future of Indian cricket. We call them and ask if they want to play cricket. We directly ask ‘Do you want to play or not’. You don’t want to play? Ok. Thank you. we don’t need you.”
About players taking injections for fitness, Chetan Sharma said, “Indian Cricket Team players take injections & get 100% fit even if they’re 80% fit. These are not painkillers. These injections contain Drugs which aren’t caught in Dope Test.”
Chetan Sharma further said that some star players are given a green signal from the NCA even when they are not fully fit, and then it gets onto the selectors to make a final call on the selection.