Calcutta: Finally, we have a captain who is willing to tear into the Board of Control for Cricket in India for its truly pathetic scheduling of international cricket, specially as a high-profile tour of South Africa is just weeks away.

Some captains have, in the past, been critical of a few things but one couldn't recall when someone actually took the Board to task.

Virat, who leads from the front, has aired his views from a position of enormous strength. He has, after all, graduated from being a mere captain to leader.

On Thursday, Virat used the pre-match media conference, ahead of the second India vs Sri Lanka Test, to slam the Board for a schedule which allows the India players only a two-day break (December 25, 26) before they depart for South Africa.

Believe it or not, that's the reality.

Sri Lanka's last match in India is the third T20I, in Mumbai, on December 24. The South Africa-bound players need to assemble there on December 27 for a flight which will depart in the early hours of December 28.

While doffing one's hat to Virat for speaking up for his players, one cannot but laugh at the Board's acting president, Chandra Kishore Khanna, for his comments to a wire agency.

Khanna has been the acting president from January 2 and was very much in the loop when the itineraries for the tours by Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka were finalised. Was he asleep then?

In fact, the Board is without an elected president - not even an elected secretary, as Amitabh Choudhary is acting secretary - and is being 'run' by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators headed by Vinod Rai.

Rai, too, must therefore take the blame for what has happened.

A well-placed source informed The Telegraph that the visit by Sri Lanka was accommodated almost wholly to spite South Africa.

Relations between the Board and Cricket South Africa (CSA) haven't exactly been the warmest from the time Narayanswami Srinivasan was the Board president and Haroon Lorgat the CSA's CEO.

Both, of course, are no longer in their positions.

"It's just to spite South Africa that Sri Lanka got invited. To a much lesser extent, another reason was that there is no bilateral cricket with Pakistan, so a slot was open...

"Also, let's not forget that the Board is looking to enhance its revenue...

"South Africa wanted India to play four Tests, matching what they themselves played during their 2015-2016 tour of India. The Board pruned the Tests down to three. Getting Sri Lanka to play till December 24 came in handy," the well-placed source revealed.

While games between Boards are not unusual, one only hopes that the lack of adequate preparation in South Africa - no more than one two-day match - before the opening Test and no rest after a demanding season at home don't cost Virat and his men heavily.

Given Virat's irritation with the poor scheduling, it wouldn't come as a surprise if the India captain (across the three formats, that is) requested for a break at the end of the three-match Test series against Sri Lanka.

Virat has been playing non-stop cricket for months and, surely, he deserves a break. Not just physically but to freshen up in the mind as well before the highly challenging tour of South Africa.