BCCI leaves a County vs Country delimma in front of Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli’s decision of not playing India’s first ever Test against Afghanistan for County cricket has created a divide within the BCCI.

While the cricket board officials seek the captain’s presence for the game, the CoA want Kohli to gear up for England before India’s series-opening game at Manchester in July.

India would be hosting Afghanistan in Bangalore from June 14 and the BCCI officials feel that Kohli’s absence from the historic game would send a disrespectful message to the visitors.

“Allowing the India captain to miss an international game and play County cricket at that point of time would send a wrong message. It would be disrespectful to the visiting team and it would also be unfair on the broadcaster,” said a cricket board official. ”

CoA head Vinod Rai had earlier confirmed that India would put up a strong side against Afghanistan and had described the preparation programme for the tour of England as “macro level planning”.

While Kohli will leave for his County stint later, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma have already started playing in County cricket for Yorkshire.