Shane Watson, the former Australian all-rounder and current assistant coach of the DC team, was hesitant to go into detail about the Kohli-Ganguly incident during an interview on ‘The Grade Cricketer’ podcast. However, he acknowledged that Kohli appeared to have “fire in his belly.” Watson stated that he is uncertain about the exact cause of the disagreement between the two.
The match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 15 caused a stir due to some on-field incidents between Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly. RCB won by 23 runs as DC suffered their fifth consecutive loss in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).
After RCB’s victory, Kohli greeted DC coach and former Australian cricketer Ricky Ponting, but ignored Ganguly. However, the DC head coach stopped him for a brief conversation. Ganguly also ignored Kohli and greeted the rest of the RCB players.
I don’t want to involve myself in this: Shane Watson
“It could be rumour-mongering, but I’m not sure. So, it’s not something I want to get involved in. But there was definitely some fire in Virat’s belly, that’s for sure. From an opposition point of view, that’s the last thing you need as well. Virat, when he’s like that, that’s when he’s at his absolute best. Whatever reason that was, I’m not exactly sure,”
Watson said.
The source of the apparent tension between Kohli and Ganguly can be linked to the time when Kohli was the captain of the Indian cricket team and Ganguly served as the BCCI President. Reportedly, Ganguly, along with then-chief selector Chetan Sharma, was unhappy with Kohli’s decision to relinquish his role as captain of the Indian T20I squad. As a result, Kohli was removed as captain of the ODI team. He eventually stepped down from his position as Test captaincy one month later.
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