Kohli breaks protocol, CoA terms it ‘freedom of speech’

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai while discussing the invitation for application of coaching staff for the Indian team had announced that skipper Virat Kohli would have no say in the appointment of the head coach. Surprisingly, the India captain decided to make his choice official a couple of days later while addressing the media before leaving for the US to play the West Indies. And now, the CoA has decided to term this act of the captain as his “freedom of speech”.

Speaking to IANS, a member of the CoA said that Kohli livesin a democratic country and cannot be stopped from making his views public.When asked if the skipper talking about his relationship with current coach(Ravi Shastri) could actually be seen as a hint for the three-member CricketAdvisory Committee (CAC), the official said that shouldn’t be the case.

   

“This is his opinion and he has expressed it and thisis a democratic country so we cannot stop someone from saying something. Whyshould every word of every individual matter? He may be captain of the team,but there is the CAC and it is for them to take a call on this (appointingcoach).

“There are millions of people living in this countryand you cannot stop people from making their opinions known. It will be neededto be seen how the CAC interprets the statement from Kohli. Everyone has a wayof doing things,” the member said.

Interestingly, when it comes to the other members in theIndian team, they aren’t allowed to speak to the media without taking priorpermission. The same also applies for the employees of the BCCI who need totake permission before answering queries posted to them.

This once again brings to the fore the question whetherdifferent rules apply to different people. Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskarhad recently spoken about how the national selectors needed to put their footdown more often.

“That they selected the team for West Indies withoutfirst having a meeting to select the captain brings up the question of whetherKohli is the captain of the team at his or the selection committee’s pleasure.Speaking of lame ducks, the Indian selection committee appears to be one. Afterthe reappointment, he (captain) gets invited to the meeting for his views onselecting the players for the team.

“By bypassing the procedure, the message that goes outis that while the players like Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik get dropped afterbelow expectation performance, the captain continues despite much below parexpectations where the team did not even reach the finals,” he said.

Before that, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly had alsoquestioned certain selection decisions and asked the selectors to not try andplease individuals.

“Time has come for indian selectors to pick sameplayers in all formats of the game for rhythm and confidence.. too few areplaying in all formats ..great teams had consistent players ..it’s not aboutmaking all happy but picking the best for the country and be consistent..@bcci(sic.),” Ganguly had tweeted.

Speaking during the pre-departure press conference, Kohli had spoken about the relation the team shares with Shastri and how it would be nice to have him continue. “Well, the CAC has not contacted me on this. But all of us share a great camaraderie with Ravi bhai and would definitely be very happy (to have him around). But as I had said, it’s on the CAC to decide (how to go about it),” Kohli had said. IANS

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