Ravi Shastri on the Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly ‘no handshake’ controversy: “If I don’t want to talk, I’ll just go past”

Due to on-field incidents involving Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 15 generated controversy. Following the game, Virat Kohli greeted Capitals coach Ricky Ponting but ignored Capitals Director of Cricket Ganguly, who in turn ignored the RCB batsman. RCB won the game by a score of 23 runs.

When Ganguly was the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Kohli was the captain of Team India, tensions between the two Indian legends first surfaced. Virat quit as captain of the T20Is and apparently had to give up the ODI captaincy under Ganguly’s presidency.

How he would handle a situation similar to the one that occurred during the IPL match no. 20 between RCB and DC was a question posed to former India head coach Ravi Shastri by ESPNcricinfo. As he discussed the Kohli and Ganguly “no-handshake” controversy, Shastri was unapologetic in his remarks, stating that the relationship he has with the next person will dictate his actions.

He claimed that if he doesn’t want to talk to someone, he will simply walk past them, but after time, he will realize that there is always room for improvement.

“It depends on the nature of my relationship. I’ll simply walk by if I don’t want to converse. But towards the end, when you go and sit down, you feel like, no matter how old you are, there’s always room to grow up,” Shastri added.

In addition, Ganguly was unfollowed by Kohli on Instagram immediately following the match against DC. The former BCCI president then stopped following the RCB batter as well. Additionally, a number of former cricket players, including DC assistant coach Shane Watson, have discussed the incident and expressed their opinions on it.