Chetan Sharma resigned from his position as the chairman of Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) national men’s senior selection committee on Friday, 17 February, according to reports in NDTV. This development comes after he was seen making jarring revelations about multiple aspects of Indian cricket, in a sting operation carried out by Zee Media.
As per the report, Sharma offered his resignation to the board’s secretary, Jay Shah, which has since been accepted.
In a sting operation released on 14 February, the 57-year-old revealed details about the rift between Virat Kohli, the former Indian captain, and Sourav Ganguly, the former president of the board.
Sharma was seen speaking about the ‘clash of egos’ between Kohli and Ganguly in the sting operation video – with the former relinquishing both T20I and Test captaincy during the latter’s tenure as the president, whilst also being removed from his ODI captaincy role.
Although Ganguly had then claimed of asking Kohli to reconsider his decision of stepping down as the T20I skipper, the 35-year-old batter denied such an occurrence. Referring to the incident, Sharma claimed that Kohli was trying to ‘defame’ the former president.
Moreover, the selection committee chairman further went on to claim that players have been taking ‘injections’ which cannot be caught by the anti-doping organisations, in an attempt to hide injuries and clear fitness examinations.
A Timeline of The Kohli-Ganguly Saga:
Virat Kohli was the all-format captain of the Indian men's team when Sourav Ganguly became the BCCI president in October 2019.
In September 2021, Kohli announced that he will step down as the T20I skipper after the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
Ganguly claimed he had 'personally requested' Kohli not to give up T20I captaincy.
Kohli, however, contradicted the statement, by saying "I wasn’t told that I should not leave T20I captaincy, but it was received positively."
In December of the same year, BCCI appointed Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain.
A month later, Kohli decided to relinquish Test captaincy, with Rohit Sharma becoming India's new all-format leader.
Shiv Sunder Das Could Be the New Chairman: Report
As per reports in Cricbuzz, Shiv Sunder Das is likely to replace Sharma in the vacant chairman's position. Hailing from Odisha's Bhubaneshwar, Das had played 27 international matches for India, and is currently a part of the five-member selection committee of the men's team.
The committee members are currently in Kolkata, where Bengal and Saurashtra are playing in the final of the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy, at Eden Gardens.
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