Cannot restrict a person from expressing opinions in democratic country, states CoA member on Virat Kohli’s comments

08/02/2019

A Committee of Administrators (CoA) member has reckoned that Virat Kohli is free to express his opinions and restrictions cannot be placed on what he chooses to express publicly. Kohli, in a press conference, had backed Ravi Shastri to continue as manager and has been in the news ever since.

The Supreme Court-appointed CoA’s guidelines state that the Indian skipper will have to steer clear of intervening in any decision made by the three-member Cricket Advisory Committee. His opinion would not be asked for and the three-member body comprising of Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy will work independently to make the appointment.

However, Kohli apparently broke protocol when he publicly stated in a press conference that he would be supporting Ravi Shastri for the spot of Indian manager. But a CoA member has stated that Kohli has merely expressed his personal preference and not directly intervened in any of the committee’s operations, thus doing not much wrong.

“This is his opinion and he has expressed it and this is a democratic country so we cannot stop someone from saying something. Why should every word of every individual matter? He may be captain of the team, but there is the CAC and it is for them to take a call on this,” the member was reported saying by TOI.

Rangaswamy and Dev have expressed similar sentiments, while legendary former skipper Sourav Ganguly has also agreed on this front. They all believe that his right to opinion must be respected.

“There are millions of people living in this country and you cannot stop people from making their opinions known. It will be needed to be seen how the CAC interprets the statement from Kohli. Everyone has a way of doing things,” the member added.

The appointment is to be made in September later this year with India scheduled to take on South Africa from the 15th of the same month.