Indian skipper Virat Kohli breaches protocol, CoA says it's freedom of speech

The Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administration (CoA) chief Vinod Rai while examining the application of coaching staff for team India had stated that captain Virat Kohli will have no say in the recruitment process of the head coach. But, Virat Kohli decided to make his choice official while speaking at a press conference ahead of teams departure for the West Indies tour. And now, the CoA has termed this act of the skipper as his freedom of speech.

Speaking to IANS, a member of the CoA went on to say that Kohli lives in a democratic country and connot be halted for expressing his views. When asked if Virat Kohli speaking about his relationship with coach Ravi Shastri could be seen as a hint for the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), the official asserted that shouldn’t be the case.

"This is his opinion and he has expressed it and this is a democratic country so we cannot stop someone from saying something. Why should every word of every individual matter? He may be captain of the team, but there is the CAC and it is for them to take a call on this (appointing coach). "There are millions of people living in this country and you cannot stop people from making their opinions known. It will be needed to be seen how the CAC interprets the statement from Kohli. Everyone has a way of doing things," the member said.

However, when it comes to other players in team India, they aren't allowed to speak to the press without permission. The same also applies for the employees of the BCCI. This once again brings to the question whether different rules apply to different people. Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar had recently talked about how the selectors needed to be firm while taking decisions.

"That they selected the team for West Indies without first having a meeting to select the captain brings up the question of whether Kohli is the captain of the team at his or the selection committee's pleasure. Speaking of lame ducks, the Indian selection committee appears to be one. After the reappointment, he (captain) gets invited to the meeting for his views on selecting the players for the team. "By bypassing the procedure, the message that goes out is that while the players like Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik get dropped after below expectation performance, the captain continues despite much below par expectations where the team did not even reach the finals," he said.

Prior to that, Sourav Ganguly had also expressed his doubts over certain decisions and asked the selectors to not try and please individuals. "Time has come for indian selectors to pick same players in all formats of the game for rhythm and confidence.. too few are playing in all formats ..great teams had consistent players ..it's not about making all happy but picking the best for the country and be consistent..@bcci (sic.)," Ganguly had tweeted.

At the pre-departure press conference, Virat Kohli had spoken about the relation the team has with coach Ravi Shastri. "Well, the CAC has not contacted me on this. But all of us share a great camaraderie with Ravi bhai and would definitely be very happy (to have him around). But as I had said, it's on the CAC to decide (how to go about it)," Kohli had said.