World Cup-winning former India skipper Kapil Dev has weighed in on the controversy surrounding India's white-ball captaincy, saying that Virat Kohli's statements that exposed his differences with the BCCI on the issue of captaincy were ill-timed. "It is not good to point fingers on anybody at this point in time. The South Africa tour is coming and please pay attention to the tour," Kapil Dev told ABP News. He said that Kohli speaking publicly on the captaincy issue and highlighting differences with board president Sourav Ganguly isn't good. "I would say board president is board president but yes, the Indian cricket team captain is also a big thing. But talking badly about each other in public, I don't think it is a good thing, whether it is Sourav or Kohli," added Kapil Dev.
"You have to control the situation and it would be better to think about the country first. Whatever is wrong will be known soon but speaking publicly about the topic, I think, is wrong at this time. I would not want to see any controversy ahead of an important tour," he elaborated.
In the pre-departure press-conference in Mumbai on Wednesday, Kohli dismissed as "inaccurate" Ganguly's statement that the board had requested him not to step down as T20I captain. The comment exposed the underlying tension between Kohli and the administrators after he was removed as ODI skipper as well earlier this month.
The BCCI has not yet reacted to Kohli's comments.
The superstar batter had also stated that he was informed about the end of his ODI captaincy tenure before the selection of the Test team for South Africa earlier this month.
He said he could understand the reasons for that decision as the team had not won an ICC trophy under him.
Kohli also assured full support to new white-ball captain Rohit Sharma.
(With inputs from PTI)