Won't comment on CAA without full idea, oppose four-day Test: Kohli

Indian captain Virat Kohli on Saturday (December 4) refrained from making any comments on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), without gaining full knowledge on the sensitive subject.

While addressing media on the eve of the first T20 international against Sri Lanka in Guwahati, Kohli said, “On the issue, I do not want to be irresponsible and speak on something that has, you know, radical opinions both sides. I need to have total information, total knowledge of what it means and what is going on and then be responsible to give my opinion on it.”

With Guwahati witnessing massive protests against the CAA till some days back, Kohli was asked about it and the Indian skipper weighed his words carefully.

The skipper made it clear that he will not like to get embroiled in controversy by commenting on a subject that he is not well aware of.

“Because you can say one thing and then someone can say another thing. So, I would not like to get involved in something that I don’t have total knowledge of and it’s not going to be responsible on my part to comment on it.”

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However, Kohli on his part was happy with the security arrangements and felt that the city is “absolutely safe”.

“The city is absolutely safe. We didn’t see any problems on the roads,” Kohli said, giving his thumbs-up for the match at the Barsapara Stadium.

The Assam Cricket Association is using this match as a “curtain-raiser” ahead of their maiden IPL match this season as Rajasthan Royals have adopted this venue.

There has been deployment of Rapid Action Force for the teams and ACA secretary Devajit Saikia has said the spectators will not even be allowed to bring along handkerchiefs and towels on the match-day as the traditional Assamese scarf was used for protests against CAA.

In 2016, Kohli had termed demonetisation as the “greatest move in history of Indian politics”, which met with sharp criticism from a lot of quarters, with people questioning his knowledge on the subject.

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On the same occasion, he strongly opposed the “four-day Test” proposed by the ICC as he is not in favour of any alterations which hurts the sanctity of the traditional five-day format.

“According to me, it should not be altered. As I said, the day-night is another step towards commercialising Test cricket and you know, creating excitement around it, but it can’t be tinkered with too much. I don’t believe so,” said Kohli, one of the biggest names in world cricket.

The ICC wants to try out the four-day Test matches during the next FTP cycle between 2023-2031 in order to get more free days for the commercially lucrative shorter formats.

While this is at the proposal stage, Cricket Australia had expressed its intent of trying out the format even though senior bowler Nathan Lyon termed it “ridiculous”.

India recently played Day/Night Tests and that’s about the change Kohli would like in the five-day version for now.

“You know the Day-Night Test is the most that should be changed about Test cricket, according to me,” he said.

(With inputs from agencies)