Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif made some sensational claims that it was BCCI President Sourav Ganguly who had dropped Ravi Shastri from the coaching role. Elaborating further, he said the seeds were sown back in 2017 when Shastri stepped down as coach, which meant that Anil Kumble had to step down. Shastri’s contract expired after the 2019 World Cup after which he was given a two-year extension. Latif alleged that it was Ganguly and he told Shastri: ‘It is time to go boss.’
“It all started when Anil Kumble was unfairly dropped as the coach. Ravi Shastri did not do any coaching course and yet he joined directly as a coach. It was a strong group – Kumble had over 600 wickets and Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were his teammates. This trio is very strong,” Latif said in a YouTube video.
“By all means, Ganguly said to Shastri ‘Boss, it’s time to go’ even though Shastri may have considered continuing as coach. This whole thing has been building up before the T20 World Cup, it’s personal. There are attacks and it has had an impact on Indian cricket. What happened to Pakistan in the early 1990s is happening to Indian cricket today,” said the former Pakistan wicket-keeper batsman.
Read also | ‘It’s going to be tough in India from captain to fast bowler’ – Ravi Shastri
Lastly, Latif said that off-field controversies played a role in India’s poor performance in the ICC T20 World Cup and later in South Africa. Like his compatriot Danish Kaneria, he also mentioned how the team has been divided into two groups, with Kohli and KL Rahul sitting separately.
“Such off-field tension hinders the performance of the team and that is exactly what happened. Who was sitting with Kohli? Siraj, on the left. To his right were players that no one knew. That picture said it all. KL Rahul cannot handle the team, and it remains to be seen how Rohit Sharma maintains his fitness if he is to make his Indian cricket debut in the future,” he mentioned.
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