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Chief Selector vindicates Ganguly, reiterates concerns on Kohli's decision to quit T20I captaincy

There is no end in sight of the controversy surrounding the captaincy saga of Virat Kohli as the chairman of selectors, Chetan Sharma has come forward to reiterate the point made by Sourav Ganguly that all stakeholders of the BCCI had asked him to reconsider his decision of stepping down as T20I captain.

Moreover, Mr Sharma went a step further and described Kohli’s decision as a “shock” for the selection committee, who was of the view that his announcement right before the T20 World Cup would impact the performance of players and hence the issue should have been dealt with after the conclusion of the world cup.

"When the meeting started, it was a surprise for everybody," Chetan Sharma said in a virtual press interaction after announcing the squad for the tour of South Africa. "Because the World Cup is upon you and you hear this news, what will be the reaction of a normal person? Everyone who was present in the meeting asked him to reconsider, to rethink; 'we can talk about this after the World Cup'. All the selectors felt this could affect the performance in the World Cup. It was told to Virat for the sake of Indian cricket to please continue as captain.

"It was told to him by everybody available in the meeting. All convenors were there, board officials were there. Everybody said that. Who will not say that when you hear such a news? You will be in shock. What will be your instant reaction? It was a matter of the World Cup. We thought let's talk after the World Cup. We told Virat the World Cup is upon us, and everybody requested let's talk after the World Cup.

"But he has his plans. We have to respect his decision. If someone has taken a decision, and he said in the media also, that he was thinking [along these lines] from the time of WTC, but at that time everybody told him to think about it."

Notably, the BCCI President Ganguly had raked a controversy by saying that he had personally asked Kohli to reconsider his decision and was subsequently told that otherwise his ODI captaincy will also be taken away.

Later, after Ganguly’s assertion, Kohli came out in public and refuted all the claims made by saying he wasn’t told anything of that sort and rather he claimed that all “office bearers” took his decision in a good way and commended him for taking a “progressive move.”

Kohli should address a press conference on the eve of the second Test match against South Africa starting January 03 and most definitely, he will be confronted with another set of questions pertaining to his decision that ended his captaincy tenure in white-ball formats.

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EXCLUSIVE | Walking the talk - Inside Story of how Himachal Pradesh won the Vijay Hazare Trophy

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In almost 80% of the matches that we played, we scored a lot of runs in the final overs,” Dhawan noted. “Moreover, the batting order performed really well. Prashant gave us good starts then in the middle-order, we had Nikhil and Amit who chipped in with valuable contributions and then me and Akash and partnerships in 2-3 games which were really crucial and important. Overall, as I said this is a team effort. The good part was that we didn’t just have a couple of match-winners but there were different players in all the matches who made contributions.” An emotional Dhawan credited Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association for providing the players with facilities and also thanked Anurag Thakur for his hard work and efforts. “Obviously, you can’t create history in one and it’s a process that goes on. I really want to give credit to the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) who provided us with a lot of facilities. The infrastructure is good, we have indoor stadiums as well. We have at least 6-7 grounds where national level games can be held. Apart from this, the preparations are good, we get to play a lot of matches. So, I really want to thank the association and especially Anurag Thakur sir for his efforts. He had worked really hard for this. It was everyone’s dream that Himachal Pradesh should win a title and it has now come true.” The 31-year-old revealed how the players couldn’t control their emotions after qualifying for the finale and how he got the side back in the groove. “The players were really emotional after we made a place in the final. We had this feeling that we have been working hard for so many years and now we have got the reward so it was really emotional for us. But after all the celebrations and all, we got back into the groove that we are left with one game and kept in mind that we have to play our game and not really think about the opponent. We want to give our 100% and keep it simple,” he said. Looking at the conditions, Tamil Nadu had made some tweaks in their batting order in the finale and sent the lower-order batters up the order. Though they were reduced to 40/4, Dinesh Karthik and Baba Indrajith steadied the ship for the side. Karthik in fact, went on to notch a ton. Talking about the same, Dhawan admitted that his side had come under some pressure while DK was at the crease but as they had played at the venue earlier, they had the idea that it would be a high-scoring clash. “Dinesh Karthik is of course a big player and the way he was playing, the players were under some pressure despite getting a good start. But we had played a couple of games at the venue, so we had the idea that the wicket would gradually assist the batsmen. The outfield is fast. So somewhere down the line, we had this in mind that a high score will be put on the board eventually. In fact, we chose to field after winning the toss to take advantage of the conditions in the first hour. But we knew after 10-15 overs, the pitch will assist the batters,” he said. “We were expecting a change in the lineup because we knew they would also try to shield their important batters in the initial phase. But we had a plan of picking up as many wickets as we can,” he added. Himachal Pradesh had won the final by 11 runs (VJD Method). When asked if that was in his mind, Dhawan said in the affirmative that he was keeping the scoring rate in check. He further talked about the interaction that he had with Arora in the middle. “Being a senior player, I had to take up the onus and moreover, Shubham was a bit tired as well. He had kept wickets earlier and then he batted throughout, so he was tired. He in fact, called the physio also a couple of times during the drinks break to get the stretching done. He told me that he wasn’t really able to run so I just told him that don’t give away your wicket because a wicket at that point of time would have put us under pressure.” “I told him that I will take up the responsibility of scoring the runs and asked him to rotate the strike. Also, the VJD thing was going on in the back of our minds and a wicket there would have pushed us on the back foot,” he revealed. The Vijay Hazare Trophy will now be followed by the Ranji Trophy and the Himachal Pradesh side will be back to work. “We will be resting for 2-3 days and then we will start with the preparations for the Ranji Trophy. We are starting the tournament in Mumbai from January 13, 2022.” When asked about how much importance does IPL keep in being a platform for youngsters for showcasing the talent, Dhawan replied that it does keep a lot of importance. “You see, social media is so powerful that you get noticed if you perform well. This is a BCCI tournament so everyone knows how big this opportunity is for everyone. So, this thing is in everyone’s back of the mind and it only depends upon you how you take it. If you just enjoy the process, it enhances the performance,” he concluded.