Three Instances When Cricketers Spoke Up Against Their Boards

Recently Afghanistan batter Usman Ghani accused the Afghanistan Cricket Board of corruption and demanded the resignation of its management. Tussles between players and their respective cricket boards are nothing new and Ghani’s case is the latest.

Atri Sanfui

Updated on: 7 July 2023 11:08 am

Kohli's ouster from ODI captaincy in 2021 created a rift with Sourav Ganguly

When Usman Ghani tweeted his discontent towards the Afghanistan Cricket Board and blamed the ACB for corruption and unfair selection practices, it opened memories of cases when cricketers took on their cricket boards without fearing implications. The repercussions sometimes have led to poor team-bonding and in extreme cases have even jeopardized players’ careers.

Here are the three instances when cricketers clashed with boards.

Virat Kohli Vs BCCI Saga

After the 2021 T20 World Cup debacle, Virat Kohli decided to step down as T20 captain and that led to him being stripped of his ODI leadership as well. The entire saga unfolded during the tenure of former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.

Ganguly had claimed that he requested the star batter to not leave his T20I captaincy. According to Ganguly’s version, since the selectors were not in favor of split captaincy in white-ball cricket, Virat was asked to step down as the ODI leader as well,

The controversy started when Kohli held a press conference before the South Africa tour. He said no one asked him to stay on as T20 skipper. As rumour and bad blood festered, and India lost in South Africa, Kohli also stepped down as India’s red-ball leader.

When Dwayne Bravo And His Teammates Boycotted Tour Midway

Dwayne Bravo, the captain of the West Indies in the 2014 ODI series against India, pulled out of the contest midway along with teammates after a contract fallout with the West Indies Cricket Board.

In the fourth ODI of the series, his teammates accompanied him to the toss to bring to light that something was not right. “Time to make a decision,” he said to television commentator Ian Bishop at the toss. Although the players participated in the fourth ODI, the Men in Maroon pulled out of the rest of the tour because of salary disputes between them and the WICB.

After getting ignored along with senior teammate Kieron Pollard for the 2015 ODI World Cup, Bravo lambasted the board many times for politics. An international career marred by screeching halts never took off from there on, except an anomaly in 2016, when West Indies won the T20 World Cup with Bravo in their team. On 6 November 2021, Bravo called it a day on his international career for one last time.

Ambati Rayudu’s ‘3D’ Jibe At Selectors

The biggest shock before the 2019 World Cup was Ambati Rayudu falling out of favour despite having a stellar batting record. Vijay Shankar was considered ahead of him on the pretext of Shankar being an all-rounder, in then chief selector MSK Prasad’s words, a “3D player”. For Rayudu, it was difficult to come to terms with the decision, especially when the team was backing him for the No.4 spot before the showpiece event.

“Just ordered a new set of 3D glasses to watch the world cup,” he retorted as a mark of disappointment in one of his tweets.

Later on, when Mayank Agarwal was selected over Rayudu to replace an injured Shankar despite the right-hander being in the standbys, he called curtains on his career. Although Rayudu made a quick u-turn on his decision, he never played for India again and retired from all forms of cricket in 2023.