Sanjay Manjrekar feels the timing of Virat Kohli’s decision to step down as the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain after the ongoing edition is not right. The 32-year id leading the RCB since 2013 but is yet to win a title despite making it to the final in 2016.
Virat Kohli is the only player to have played for the same team in all the editions of the league. The right-handed batsman has scored more than 6000 runs in the tournament. But Manjrekar believes the timing of his decision mid-way through the tournament is not ideal.
Manjrekar feels all the captains should announce their wish to leave captaincy only after the completion of the ongoing series.
“When Sunil Gavaskar won the Mini World Cup in 1985-86, he had said on the last day of the tournament that ‘My teammates have given me a brilliant gift on the last day of my captaincy’, so it came as a surprise and the timing was great. He played the whole tournament and irrespective of the result, his decision was ready.
“So, I believe that as a captain you should play the whole series, whether you win or lose, and then make the decision… Even MS Dhoni left the captaincy during Australia and Virat Kohli took over soon after. For captaincy, I don’t think this is the right way to do it,” said Sanjay Manjrekar to ESPN Cricinfo.
He was shocked and surprised by Virat Kohli’s disclosure that he will step down after the 14th edition of the cash-rich league.
“See, Virat Kohli is such a cricketer who invests a lot of energy in every match. We’ve seen it for the past few years that he was under immense workload pressure, being a sure-shot player and captain in all three formats and the IPL as well where this is his 9th year as captain. But I don’t understand this timing. He said in advance of the T20 World Cup that he’ll leave it after the tournament.
“And then here as well, right after the tournament [he said] he’ll leave the captaincy after it. Players say they’ll retire after a particular year or series, but doing so for captaincy resignations… I have not been able to work out this timing,” Manjrekar further added.