'I told him, if you're not interested...': Ganguly claims he didn't remove Kohli from captaincy

While considerable time has passed since the Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli saga that rocked Indian cricket, the stains still get dark whenever the strenuous episode gets recalled. Though, a clear picture is yet to be drawn out regarding what transpired, what is not opaque is that Virat Kohli stepping down from Test captaincy had apparently something to do with it. Two years later, Sourav Ganguly, who was the then BCCI president, reflected on the incident and brought forward what he communicated to Kohli when he decided to end his T20 captaincy stint.

3 things you need to know

• Saurav Ganguly revealed what went down between him and Virat Kohli during the controversial episode
• Virat Kohli decided to end his reign as the captain of Team India following the instance
• Rohit Sharma took the throne following Kohli's resignation

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Sourav Ganguly reflects on controversial saga with Virat Kohli 

Two of the biggest forces of Indian Cricket- Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli- came at odds with each other following Kohli's resignation from T20 captaincy. Kohli announced his decision to step down as T20 captain just before the T20 World Cup 2020 (Happened in 2021), and following that, in a couple of months, he relinquished the chief position of the ODI and Test format as well. Although he took the call voluntarily, sceptics often speculate that it was Ganguly and Kohli's disagreement brought the end of Virat's tenure as captain in the remaining two formats.

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Ganguly's role in Rohit Sharma becoming the captain of all three formats

Sourav Ganguly recently shed light on what went down at that time, and said he told Kohli that if he doesn't want to lead India in T20s then it is better to renounce oneself from the skipper role of the other white-ball format too.

"I didn't remove Virat from captaincy. I have said this several times. He (Kohli) was not interested to lead in T20Is. So, after he made that decision, I told him, if you're not interested to lead in T20Is, it's better if you step down from entire white-ball cricket formats. Let there be a white-ball captain and a red-ball captain," Sourav Ganguly said on .

Ganguly also weighed on Rohit Sharma stepping up to take the onus and divulged that Sharma wasn't in favour of leading India in all three formats in the first instance but got convinced when he urged him to take up the assignment.

"I pushed Rohit Sharma a bit to take up the captaincy role because he wasn't interested to lead in all three formats of the game. So, maybe I have a bit of contribution in that but no matter who is administrating, it's the players who perform well on the field. Nobody from outside can contribute much.

In the end, Ganguly reiterated what his job was at the helm of the BCCI.

"I was appointed as the President of BCCI to work for the betterment of Indian cricket, this is a small part of it."