‘Coach Dravid, captains Rohit, Hardik lost faith and respect in Chetan Sharma’ | Cricket

Chetan Sharma’s professional life turned upside down in a matter of few days. The former India pacer’s second term as chairman of the BCCI men’s team selection committee came to a premature end after he tendered his resignation to secretary Jay Shah, who accepted it on Friday. BCCI reportedly did not formally ask Sharma to put down his papers but it takes no prize to guess that he had very little option otherwise. Sharma’s position as the chief selector became uncertain after he was heard leaking confidential details about internal matters of the Indian team’s functioning in a ‘sting operation’ by ZEE Media.

Chetan Sharma’s comments reportedly did not go down well with the BCCI top brass. A BCCI source told news agency PTI that head coach Rahul Dravid, captains Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya “lost faith in him” ever since the ‘sting operation’ was aired on Tuesday, February 14.

“Coach Rahul Dravid, captains Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya have completely lost faith in him. He couldn’t have possibly sat across the table along with them for selection committee meetings as he had lost all respect. He paid the price for being a big mouth,” said a BCCI source.

In the ‘sting operation’, Chetan Sharma was seen alleging that a lot of players take injections to expedite their return to competitive cricket despite being 80-85 per cent fit.

The former India pace bowler also alleged that there was a difference of opinion between him and the team management over pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah’s return from a stress fracture for the T20I series against Australia in September.

He also claimed that T20I captain Hardik Pandya, pace bowler Umesh Yadav and Deepak Hooda regularly visited him at his residence.

Chetan also spoke about the relationship between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and alleged that there was an ego tussle between Kohli and former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly.

Sharma and the entire selection committee had earlier been sacked following India’s semi-final exit in the T20 World Cup in Australia. He re-applied for the post and was re-appointed as chairman.

Chetan Sharma represented India in 23 Tests and 65 ODIs, picking up 61 and 67 wickets respectively.