Salman Butt accuses BCCI of plotting end of Kohli’s captaincy amidst IPL criticism

Former Pakistani cricketer Salman Butt has slammed Sourav Ganguly for suggesting that winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) is tougher than winning the World Cup. The former Indian cricket captain backed Rohit Sharma’s captaincy but said winning IPL, consisting of 14 matches and playoffs, is more difficult than the World Cup, which has just four to five matches to reach the semi-finals. Salman Butt disagreed, clarifying that international cricket cannot be compared with franchise cricket. He also criticised Ganguly’s comment, stating that it was shocking coming from someone of his stature. Butt took a dig at Ganguly, saying that it is tough to watch Test cricket after watching a lot of T20 cricket. Butt also stated that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) plotted the end of Virat Kohli’s captaincy. Ganguly was the BCCI president when Kohli resigned from the T20I captaincy and was sacked as ODI captain. Kohli quit the Test captaincy a month after being sacked in the ODI format. Ganguly refuted allegations that Kohli was removed and stated that the player himself decided to step down from captaincy, which came as a surprise for the Board. However, Salman Butt alleged that Kohli knew he was being removed deliberately and added that he shouldn’t have been removed as he was a successful captain.