“Bhaajji pauna” and “bhaajji modhna” are two commonly used terms in Navaniat Singh’s ‘Shareek’ (2015) and ‘Shareek 2’ (2022). The terms can be loosely translated to “gaining a lead” and “giving it back” to the opponent respectively.
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The first and the second part (although unrelated) of these family drama Punjabi movies encompassed of battles fought for land & lover and identity respectively. Although former India captains Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli’s controversy in 2021 wasn’t for any of these three agendas, their public dispute hasn’t been bereft of “bhaajji pauna” and “bhaajji modhna”.
When both the individuals and their fans appeared to have moved on from a controversy which eventually resulted in a change of leadership of the Indian cricket team across formats, chief selector Chetan Sharma has come up with a “bhaajji” out of nowhere to practically reignite the whole matter.
Not on purpose though, Sharma’s presence in a Zee News sting operation has caught him bringing forward another angle to put Ganguly in the lead this time (assuming you want to believe all that he said during the sting operation).
Chetan Sharma reignites Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly controversy
It all had started with Kohli deciding to step down as T20I captain before ICC T20 World Cup 2021. Ganguly, who thanked Kohli for “tremendous performance” as India’s T20I captain at the time, had later revealed that the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) had requested him to reconsider his decision.
With the top BCCI officials not in favour of two separate captains for both white-ball formats, Kohli was removed as the ODI captain 90 minutes before the selection meeting for India’s tour of South Africa 2022 according to him without any communication regarding “reconsidering” from the board in all this while.
Kohli’s press conference before traveling to South Africa had swayed a large majority of emotional support towards his side with his plethora of fans finding faults in Ganguly for lying. However, as per Sharma now, it was Kohli who had lied during the presser for reasons unknown to him. Readers must note that Sharma’s version of the controversy hadn’t matched with Kohli’s back then as well.
“The press conference before leaving for South Africa is about the team but why he bought the topic of captaincy, I don’t know. Maybe [Virat] Kohli did it on purpose. The truth is Virat was lying. [Sourav] Ganguly told him to think over it. Why Kohli lied, no one knows till now. It became a controversy, it was Board vs Player,” Sharma said during the sting.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar and former India all-rounder Madan Lal had opined on the whole situation stating how it should have been handled in a better way and rightly so. While one understands the board’s notion against two limited-overs captain, the matter should have never downgraded to the extent it ended up being.
As far as Sharma’s comments are concerned, he has accused Indian cricketers’ participation in wrongdoings in more ways than one. In the absence of any official statement as of now, it is difficult to guess if the board will take his words seriously or not. Assuming that they don’t, a shortened tenure awaits him!
