Ravi Shastri, former head coach of the
Indian cricket team, said India’s white-ball captaincy change could have been
handled better “with good communication” and now BCCI president Sourav Ganguly
must speak up after Virat Kohli presented his version of the controversy.

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Speaking at The Indian Express eAdda, on
Thursday, Shastri said, “I have been part of this system for many years, I was
part of this team for the past seven years. With good communication, this can
be handled much, much better, instead of it being out in the public domain.
Virat has given his side of the story, it needs the president of the board to
come and give his side of the story, or give some clarification on whatever has
happened. That is all.”

Shastri also said both parties can reach a
truce if they sit and communicate things better.  “The question is, what is the truth. You want
to know the truth and that can only come with dialogue and communication.
Nothing else,” he said.

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“One person is going to sit on one side and
say something. Other person is going to sit on the other side and say
something. There has to be some clarity and you need dialogue from both sides,
not one side,” Shastri added.

Soon after Rohit Sharma was appointed
India’s full-fledged white-ball captain earlier this month, Ganguly said that
he personally told Kohli not to give up the T20I captaincy. Kohli, on the other
hand, told reporters that there had been no communication from the board once
he had decided to relinquish leadership in the shortest format in September.

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After being sacked as India’s ODI skipper,
Kohli conducted a press conference and said he was informed that the selectors
were removing him only 90 minutes before the meeting to pick the Test squad for
the South Africa tour this month.

Asked about his opinion, Shastri said it
would not be wise to say something until it is known what “actually happened”
between Kohli and Ganguly.

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“You got to know the sequence of events,
what actually happened. We are not privy to it. What the actual communication
was, what was asked, what was not asked, what context was it asked in, and what
was the answer given. These are the things that we do not know,” Shastri said.

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“So to jump into the subject of what is
happening there, I think, would not be right, till you know what has transpired
between both parties, what was the actual conversation, what was the subject,
where did it start from and what was the end. Once you get to know all that,
then you can join the dots and see what is the right thing to do,” he said.