Chetan Sharma Sting Operation: Here are all the revelations made by Indian cricket chief selector

Reporter: Sir when you became the chairman of selectors, there was a big controversy involving Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly… Can you tell us about that?

Chetan Sharma: Right now, I am in office, so I won’t be able to talk about it…

Reporter: This is all off the record sir, I am not going to use your quote. We haven’t even officially met. This is just for research purposes.

Chetan Sharma: See whenever there is some disagreement between a player and the board president, it becomes a big controversy.

Chetan Sharma: It is very dangerous because the BCCI then goes against the player. The BCCI has the power. It doesn’t matter who is at fault, that is secondary. Such an incident is an attack on the BCCI. Players are always advised to stay clear of these things, because ultimately it will only damage their career, even if the president is at fault. It is a matter of the chair.

Chetan Sharma: When a player becomes a little experienced, then he feels that he has all the power, even more than the board. Then he feels that he is untouchable and the board will not be able to hurt him. A player feels that without him, cricket will not survive, but many big players have come and gone.

Cricket remains the same. So, at the time, he tried to attack the president. Sourav Ganguly never mentioned this issue to me, but it became a huge deal. Either the president was lying or Virat Kohli was speaking the truth, this situation created headlines.

It was a battle of egos. Sourav Ganguly was also the captain of India. He was regarded as the most trustworthy captain and he is still remembered as the most successful captain. Virat naturally thinks that he is the most successful captain. So, it was one person’s word over another, that naturally created some friction between the two.

Chetan Sharma: Why did Virat have to say that? He is travelling to South Africa as the captain of the Indian cricket team. The press conference is always about the team, there was no reason to bring this topic up, but he did so deliberately.

Reporter: What did he want to get out of that?

Chetan Sharma: Only he knows that

Reporter: Still, you can give us something controversial…

Chetan Sharma: He obviously felt that he lost the ODI captaincy because of the president of the BCCI.

Chetan Sharma: Ganguly made a statement that when Virat Kohli was discussing leaving the T20i captaincy with the BCCI, he tried to persuade him not to do so.

Reporter: That means Ganguly wanted Kohli to stay on as captain?

Chetan Sharma: He said this in the media

Chetan Sharma: On the other hand, Virat went to the media and said that the president never told me anything about this. That’s what created the controversy.

Reporter:  But what is the truth?

Chetan Sharma: He had said, it is normal, Sourav Ganguly had told him (Kohli) to reconsider. Which might be in the video conference as well, but it seems Virat did not hear it. Nine people were sitting there. It’s not as if it was only one person. I was also there, all the selectors were there, the president was there.  So, either Virat did not listen, or I don’t know…

Reporter – So Kohli lied?

Chetan Sharma- He thought that Sourav Ganguly had a hand in his removal from white ball captaincy.

Reporter- So Ganguly wanted him out as captain?

Reporter: So, who did Sourav Ganguly want in place of Virat?

Chetan Sharma: Rohit Sharma had already come. You are not understanding the gravity of the situation. This is a huge thing. There is a clash of two egos. One who thinks that Ganguly has removed him from captaincy, so I will take my revenge. Virat gave statements in the media trying to defame Ganguly, but it backfired.

Reporter: Sourav Ganguly was favouring Rohit Sharma?

Chetan Sharma: Only Ganguly can tell you that.

Reporter: Sir, we are drawing the line here.

Chetan Sharma’s associate: No, it will all come back to sir (Chetan Sharma).

Reporter: sir, why will it come on you?

Chetan Sharma: Because I made him captain?

Reporter: Sir, the controversy is still on, accept it.

Chetan Sharma: Don’t say that we were favouring Rohit Sharma, say that we were against Virat Kohli. Peg it like that.

Chetan Sharma: Ganguly was against Virat Kohli.

Reporter: He supported Rohit Sharma?

Chetan Sharma: Rohit wasn’t even aware; he didn’t even know who would be made captain.

Chetan Sharma – Virat felt that nothing had happened. When we removed Virat as captain, there was no statement from our side. We spoke to him and informed him that he will no longer be captain.

Reporter: We have seen many reports of a rift between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Why is that?

Chetan Sharma: There is no dispute, this is just media speculation.

Chetan Sharma: When two big leaders sit face to face, there is always a slight ego clash. I said the boy is very good, but he disagreed. However, there is no rift.

Reporter: We had read numerous reports in newspapers of a tussle between the two.

Chetan Sharma: There’s nothing, just two big personalities, like Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra. Nothing ever happens. There are just two big egos. When there is no story, the media creates something.

Reporter: When Virat was battling poor form?

Chetan Sharma: Rohit supported Virat when he was going through a rough patch. At that time, Rohit completely backed Virat and when Rohit had a problem then Virat backed him.

Chetan Sharma: This is not a 40-member team, it is a team of 15. You cannot go out of the team hotel. You have a player lounge, you have a team room, also a war room. The selectors are present at all three places in the hotel, someone is always observing the players, it might be me or I may have assigned that duty to one of the others, someone is always watching. They know that action will be taken against even the smallest of disputes. They will call me directly and I will call both of them and resolve the matter. We simply ask them if they want to play cricket or not. If not so… Okay thank you, we don’t need you. 100,000 people are sitting in India, waiting for their chance.

Reporter: Now there is some talk around Virat as well, but he has left captaincy…

Chetan Sharma: For the public, the selectors play a very important role. A player should stay in touch with the selectors. Rohit was talking to me for half an hour this morning. It depends who the selector is and how comfortable a cricketer is with that person. I am a different sort of person. Whatever Rohit and I discussed it will not go outside this room. I am a media man. I am very thick-skinned.

Chetan Sharma: Current cricketers are also in touch with me. Hardik Pandya had come, and he had a casual chat with me. Deepak Hooda had come. Umesh Yadav came to meet me the other day. All these players want to speak to the chairman of selectors. All three are concerned about their future. Hardik wants to discuss his future.  The discussions we can have at my house, we can’t have anywhere else. Hardik landed in Delhi the other day and called me immediately, asking me where I was, and then came to meet me at night.

Reporter: Players hide their injuries and play?

Chetan Sharma: Maybe 10-15% do that and they ask us to let them play but medical science does not let them. Players obviously want to play; they do not want to miss any matches. In case of Bumrah, he wasn’t even able to bend down so what could he do? There are only handful of such cases, however some of them, they just take injections on their own and they say they are fine.

Chetan Sharma: No, not pain killers. They take injections and it is almost impossible to detect. They’ll need prescriptions for pain killers and they’ll get caught by anti-doping agencies. They take injections because they know what injections will not be caught by the agency.

Reporter: They take it on their own?

Chetan Sharma: No, they are superstars. They have their own doctors, they’ll call them, the doctor will come to their house and give them the injection.

Reporter: You all must allow this?

Chetan Sharma: We don’t even get to know…

Reporter: Then how do we get to know about this?

Chetan Sharma:  When you play a match, you are there in the field till six in the evening. Then they go back to their hotel rooms. It is not possible to send someone with them to check where they are going or whom they are meeting? I don’t know. They have a life. Even they want to go for a walk, they need to have their dinner. Everyone is on their own once they leave the field.

Reporter: But I can’t break the rule.

Chetan Sharma: I can’t break the rule. I don’t know who is breaking the rule. We do not get to know.

Reporter: They must be worried because they know they can’t do this, because as you said strict action will be taken if there is any wrongdoing. These things can spread like a forest fire.

Chetan Sharma: 99% of them directly report to the NCA. Only 1% of them think that they can do this, maybe they do it as well, I don’t know. We can’t say that yes, they do this. But we can’t say that they don’t do it as well. We selectors, don’t get to know. How can we? There are over 2500 players.

Chetan Sharma: Bumrah arrived fit and since he arrived fit, we planned accordingly that since only two matches are left, he will directly play the T20 World Cup. I wanted him to play the third match but Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma wanted him to play the second match and would have given him a rest in the third match. They planned to play him in two of the world cup practice matches.  So, I spoke to Bumrah and he said he wanted to play the first match itself.

Chetan Sharma: I told him that he won’t play the first match and only play the second. When he played in that match, he felt a little uncomfortable. I got a call and I was told that he is being sent for a scan. Now, we the management and selectors came under pressure. That if we sent him to Australia as part of the World Cup squad, and if he broke down, we won’t be able to announce a replacement. Announcing a replacement is always challenging. Then I asked him about his condition, he said he was okay and then he played the second match.

Chetan Sharma: Every player wants to perform well; everyone wants to become a star. Everyone wants to become Virat Kohli.

Chetan Sharma: There are some players who say they want to play but we withdraw their names and we have to tell them that they will have opportunities in the future.

Chetan Sharma: Now when Rishabh Pant got injured, Ishan Kishan came in as his replacement. Rishabh Pant got injured, Shikhar Dhawan is literally out of the team, Sanju samson is also almost out. Three players are in the doldrums because of one knock by Ishan Kishan. The job of the selectors is very difficult now. How can three wicketkeepers be in a squad? KL Rahul also keeps and Ishan Kishan is also in the team. We put a third wicketkeeper in the form of Sanju Samson.

Reporter: Is Kishan now a permanent member of the white-ball teams?

Chetan Sharma: That is why no player wants to give away his place in the squad because they know if someone performs then he’ll be out of reckoning for almost two years.

Chetan Sharma: Suppose I think this player can replace Virat Kohli, whoever that is. Virat wasn’t performing so we thought we’ll give him a break and give the other guy a chance. When we want to do something like that – we are five selectors – now telling this to five selectors is a tough job. You need to be really clever. I had an upper hand because I was a politician, so I know how to control people. We need to be on the same platform and we need to make sure that we don’t agree on something then and there in the meeting and say something else outside. In my two-year tenure we never had a vote. I never let that happen. Voting means that despite us being five selectors we only get one vote.

Chetan Sharma: Our meetings are never longer than 20 minutes. We go inside the room, sit there for hours but we don’t discuss anything. The captain comes and he speaks. Now, Rohit Sharma is like my son, I have seen him grow up. I have seen Virat Kohli grow up as well.

Reporter: Is there favouritism in the team?

Chetan Sharma: No there’s none. This is the wrong word. There are likes and dislikes, everyone has a different viewpoint.