Like most who take an interest in Indian cricket, Sunil Gavaskar too wants BCCI president Sourav Ganguly to speak up after Virat Kohli’s statements triggered a massive controversy on Wednesday. According to Gavaskar, Sourav “surely should be asked” why Kohli’s comments contradict what the BCCI chief had said earlier.

Sourav had last week said that the BCCI, or rather he personally, had asked Kohli to reconsider his decision of quitting T20I captaincy. However, Kohli, who has also lost the ODI captaincy to Rohit Sharma, claimed on Wednesday that no one from the BCCI had asked him not to give up captaincy in the shortest format.

“I think it (Kohli’s comment) actually doesn’t bring the BCCI into the picture. I think it’s the individual who has to be asked where he got the impression he had conveyed such a message to Kohli. So, that’s the only thing,” Gavaskar told India Today.

“Yes, he (Sourav) is the BCCI president and surely he should be asked why there is this discrepancy. He is probably the best person to ask about the discrepancy in what you seem to have to say and what the Indian captain has said,” he added.

Kohli, while addressing a media conference before the Indian team left for their tour of South Africa, also said that he was informed about the selectors’ decision to remove him as the ODI captain 90 minutes prior to the selection meeting last Wednesday. But Gavaskar refuses to find any controversy there, instead backing the Chetan Sharma-led selection committee for the decision they took.

“What is the controversy here? As long as the chairman of selectors had told him clearly that we are not considering you for ODI captaincy now, that’s perfectly fine. It is the selectors who have complete authority in selection committee meetings. The captain is just a co-opted, non-voting member,” the former captain said.

“As long as it’s not something that he (Kohli) has not found out from the media or, as it happened in the past, that the commander of a passenger flight announced it… I think he has been told by the chairman of the selection committee that he is not going to be the captain… I think that is absolutely okay.”

Gavaskar also urged the BCCI to work on its communication to avoid any such fiasco in the future.

“Yes, it always helps to have a clear line of communication so that there is no speculation. So from now, from what has happened, there should be a clear line of communication and the chairman of the selection committee can come down and say why he has been picked and why he has not been picked.”