Virat Kohli, the former captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team in the Indian Premier League, refused to shake hands with Sourav Ganguly, the Director of Cricket at Delhi Capitals, after Bangalore’s victory over Delhi by 23 runs in IPL 2023. The incident was caught on camera and it soon went viral on social media.
After the match, players and support staff from both teams went for the customary handshake. Ganguly shook hands with Faf du Plessis, the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore, while Kohli was right behind him. When it was Kohli’s turn to greet Ganguly, he refused to shake hands. In a video that surfaced online, Ricky Ponting, Delhi’s head coach, was seen telling Kohli to shake hands with Ganguly, but Kohli refused again.
The conflict between Kohli and Ganguly began in 2021 when India toured South Africa. Back then, Ganguly was the BCCI chief while Kohli had just relinquished his T20I captaincy. Following Kohli’s stepping down, Ganguly stated that the BCCI asked him to stay in the role, which Kohli refuted. After this, Kohli was removed from the ODI captaincy and eventually stepped down as Test captain too in January 2022 after India lost to South Africa in the Test series.
