Virat Kohli
Credits - BCCI

Former BCCI president Anurag Thakur, on Sunday (June 25), said that India skipper Virat Kohli is being ‘unreasonably targetted’ for Anil Kumble‘s acrimonious exit as the head coach of the team.

Earlier this week, Kumble caused quite a stir in the Indian cricket fraternity with his unexpected resignation as Team India coach. The outgoing coach, who was expected to travel with the team to West Indies for the ongoing limited-overs series, revealed he decided to walk away after being informed of captain Virat Kohli’s reservations over his style of functioning, thus bringing an end to the episode that had begun with reports of a rift between him and the captain during the buildup of the Champions Trophy.

And with Kohli not revealing his side of the story, everyone is still confused as to what really transpired between the duo and it has led to several former cricketers criticising the India skipper. However, Thakur believes the 28-year old batsman is needlessly dragged into the controversy.

“Virat is being unreasonably targetted, I think this discussion should stop. Virat has the ability to take Indian cricket to new heights in the next 10 years. This is not the first time that a cricketer is being targetted. In the past too, captains and former captains have been targetted,” Thakur said.

Thakur also took a dig at the current BCCI office bearers for their failure to deal with the situation.

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“The previous BCCI set-up was more adept at handling such situations. People should give the Board credit that it honoured the Cricket Advisory Committee’s recommendation but also gave Kumble only a one-year contract so that the Board was free to take a call if there were to be any problems,” he explained.

“We never allowed such things to be leaked. When Kumble was offered a one-year contract, nobody said that they had any objection to it. In the 7-8 months of Kumble’s contract when we were in charge, nobody spoke of any problem between them (Kumble and Kohli). Questions should be asked from those who are running the Board now as to how these circumstances have arisen,” he added.

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