"Speak Face To Face": Shahid Afridi On India's White-Ball Captaincy Controversy

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has weighed in on the controversy over Virat Kohli being replaced by Rohit Sharma as India's ODI captain. Afridi said that the episode could have been handled in a better manner by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), blaming a lack of clear communication for the row. In his pre-South Africa tour press conference, Kohli had contradicted BCCI president Sourav Ganguly's claim that the board had asked him not to quit T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup. Kohli had expressed his intention to continue leading India in Tests and ODIs after stepping down from T20I captaincy earlier this year.

However, the BCCI removed Kohli as ODI skipper and appointed Rohit as full-time white-ball captain while announcing the squad for the Test series in South Africa.

"This could have been handled in a better way. I always feel that the role of a cricket board is very important; it plays the role of a father. Whatever future plans a selection committee of a board has regarding a player, it communicates those plans to that player, like, 'Look, we have these plans, what are your plans? We want to do this and as a board, we see benefits from doing this', Afridi told Pakistan's Urdu-language news channel Samaa TV.

"If you communicate through the media, then there will be issues. If you sit in front of each other, speak face to face, then I think there can be solutions to problems. If you want to create issues out of something, then that doesn't solve anything," Afridi added.

Topics mentioned in this article

Cricket India Cricket Team Pakistan Cricket Team Virat Kohli Sourav Ganguly Shahid Afridi