Ravi Shastri and Sourav Ganguly should adopt restraint : IPL Chairman Rajiv Shukla

ByShivaprakash Balakrishnan, SportsCafe Editor

06/30/2016

As the tiff between Ravi Shastri and Sourav Ganguly threatens to grow bigger, IPL Chairman Rajiv Shukla has stepped in to try and resolve the issue. Shukla has requested both the legends to exercise restraint and respect the decision of the BCCI in the issue of the selection process of India coach.

The Shastri-Ganguly debate has refused to die down with multiple former cricketers expressing their views and taking sides on the matter. Gautam Gambhir and Sanjay Manjrekar backed the BCCI’s decision on the head coach, while Bishan Singh Bedi supported Shastri. Now, Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Rajeev Shukla has stepped in to resolve this tussle by taking this onto twitter.

The war of words started between Shastri and Ganguly soon after the former criticized the latter’s absence during his interview.

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Shastri initially said “It's nothing to do with Sourav, but I am disappointed because that person was disrespectful of the candidate who was going to be interviewed and disrespectful of the job he was entrusted to do".

Ganguly hit back on Shastri by pointing out that he was absent for his interview to such an important post. Ganguly said, “If Ravi thinks because of me that he is not the coach of Team India, then he is living in a fool’s world. Ravi has made a personal attack which was not expected and is very saddening. I say this with anger that my counter piece of advice to Shastri is that he should have been present physically and not holidaying in Bangkok for such an important event. Ravi should have shown some more maturity before going public about it”.

Dada also expressed his annoyance at the remarks and added, “I just feel his (Shastri) comments are very personal. It angers me that he gave a suggestion that I should be available for such meetings. I have been a part of BCCI meetings for some time and I have always been available.”

Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Rajeev Shukla has come forward to settle down the conflict between the two. On his twitter handle, Shukla has requested Sourav Ganguly and Ravi Shastri to put an end to the tussle.