The Virat Kholi retirement has in the last few days grown and grown in the cold emptiness the game of cricket has sunk to by the sudden and literally tragic exit of the greatest showman the game has ever witnessed dulling an entire cricket world.
In such an exit of a player who by and large became indispensable to the game judging by the reaction of an entire passionate cricket world to a point of drawing emotionally regrettable comments from such former greats like Kohli’s own countryman Suchin Tendulkar, West Indian record breaker Brian Lara and Australians Greg Chappell and Adam Gilchrist, there has emanated a new twist to the Kohli retirement.
According to word emanating from Indians close to the game mainly from the past, the talk getting hotter and hotter is an accusing finger being pointed flatly at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that its big lords virtually drove Kohli out of test cricket.
Talk breaking out in Indian cricket corridors is doing the rounds that Kohli abruptly walked out of test cricket after his expectations for the June test series were rejected by the BCCI driving a visibly hurt Virat Kohli to tweet his hurried retirement by an Instagram message that shocked the cricket world.
One Indian cricketer of yore who had met Kohli just a few days before his retirement, has sworn that when he bumped into Kohli he had been all focussed on the upcoming series against England, and that in fact Kohli had revealed that he had played in some long league games to gearing up to face England.
Word has it that what hurt Kohli was that at one stage after Rohit Sharma failed miserably during the tour of Australia, Kohli had offered to take over the captaincy. Although it had not materialised, Kohli, who had expressed his desire to be stop gap captain for the England series until a permanent captain had been appointed, had in fact been given hopes of taking over. But that Head Coach Gautam Gambir had mainly opposed the idea saying India needed to groom a future long term captain.
Gambir’s tough stance is said to have been supported by Chief Selector, Ajit Agarkar.
It is no secret that Gambir wasn’t a Kohli lover and that he resented the Kohli and Sharma senior clout that prevailed in the dressing room in Australia.
And so out went Kohli in a rush of blood decision, hurt by the bad experience.
Indian scribes swear to this latest revelation.
If so, the BCCIs cold, parting of ways with the man who unflinchingly and so steadfastly was so near and dear and so true to Indian cricket who is by and large credited to have taken India to the summit of test cricket, was a kick in the back.
Little thanks for loyalty and commitment.
Surely, didn’t India’s greatest servant of test cricket with the best captaincy record of 40 wins to 17 losses and an ever enduring run making legacy of nearly 10,000 test runs and 30 centuries, deserve a fitting send off of repaying for his great, unparalleled and unflinching services to Indian cricket in that format?
Didn’t he deserve such a send off on his own terms?
Wouldn’t harsh decisions kick back on the harsh that dealt that Unkindest Cut to India’s cricketing legend?
Kohli’s retirement has also been attributed to growing discord with Gambhir. A report indicates that Kohli was unhappy with how the team management treated close confidant Rohit Sharma, escalating tensions within the squad.