Now after exactly 10 years as we begin our campaign to defend the ICC Champions Trophy,another spat has been split wide open and at the centre of it is gentleman head coach AnilKumble. One hopes that history does not repeat itself and we get knocked out early from theChampions Trophy in England.
I had written last year itself how Kumble had inherited a crown of thorns. Kumble’s term began inauspiciously with then BCCI chief AnuragThakur saying that Rahul Dravid was his first choice.
Former Team Director Ravi Shastri also sulked and doesn’t seem to have forgotten hismissing that job to this present day. Since then MS Dhoni has quit all forms of captaincy butremains a key senior figure, maybe much more respected than Kumble in the team.
Of course Virat Kohli has inherited the title completely from Dhoni captaining India in allthree formats along with the leadership of an IPL team, RCB. With the BCCI leadership inthe doldrums after the Supreme Court of India intervened, you could say that Kohli iscurrently the most powerful man in Indian cricket.
And by all manner of reports, Kohli is totally unhappy with Kumble. While Indian cricket issuch that rumours swirl and one never knows the truth of any matter, Kumble right now is notin the good books of Team India.
Reportedly Kohli finds Kumble’s leadership style “overbearing” (you can’t overbear the mostpowerful man in cricket) and other players have called Kumble a “headmaster” (not the idealway to handle the team with the most superstars in world cricket).
In fact “intimidating” is another word that has been bandied around and there’s no waysomeone seniors MS Dhoni will accept that. There is also suspicion that Kumble leakeddetails of his conversations with senior players and that is another strike against him.
Kohli and Kumble were also supposed to be at loggerheads over the inclusion of KuldeepYadav in the final Test with Australia of the last series. Kohli vetoed his name in the thirdTest and Kumble managed to include him in the fourth Test as Ajinkya Rahane captained itand Kohli was injured.
Interestingly Kohli is supposed to have conveyed his discontent to Ganguly, who had a handin picking Kumble, and who was at the centre of the 2007 controversy. Ganguly must befeeling a great sense of déjà vu as these “conflict cycles” have become part and parcel ofIndian cricket.
However this time Ganguly is on the side of the management and not the players!Kumble pushing the team too hard and stressing the team out is reminiscent of Kapil Devgoing after the players as coach in the late 1990s. That was one of the main reasons why theBCCI decided to do away with the foreign coach and India had a stellar run beginning withKiwi John Wright and ending with South African Gary Kirsten.
Zimbabwean Duncan Fletcher was a mixed bag. While we did have the 0-8 overseas Testdebacle, we still beat Australia 4-0 in Tests for the first time and won the 2013 ICCChampions Trophy.
Even under Chappell, Team India saw an attitudinal change in the way players stopped takingtheir place in the team for granted and we became the best ODI chasers in the world.But now history has repeated itself first with Kapil and now with Kumble and it remains to beseen whether the BCCI will revert to a foreign coach. This also as most of the Indian playersdon’t seem that keen after what happened to Kumble.
Interestingly the BCCI seems to have shown interest in Virender Sehwag replacing Kumble,but Viru seems disinterested. Even Shastri and Dravid are totally mum on their willingness totake over from Kumble.
Interestingly Kumble was in already in controversy even before all this came out in the open.He demanded a salary hike and for some reason the BCCI always feels miffed when such athing happens. In fact one official is said to have claimed that Kumble was pushing theplayers to demand a hike, dubbing it a form of “unionism”.
In the early 1990s captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth was summarily retired when he put agun to the BCCI’s head demanding hikes for players. Sure enough the BCCI has alreadycome out with an ad for the next head coach and you should remember that Kumble’scontract ends with the Champions Trophy.
Curiously the BCCI has indicated that Kumble may apply again and one doesn’t know whatto make of it if that’s true. Interestingly the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprisingof Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman will decide again. So technicallythey can pick friend Kumble again!
The Lodha Committee muddied the waters further by questioning Kumble’s short tenure andasking why the BCCI had come out with an ad to replace him.
But one must say that Kumble must feel quite unlucky. The last one year has been a greattime for Indian cricket and we have lost very few matches. Kumble had a short stint withIndia captaincy and a relatively short stint with the Karnataka State Cricket Association.
If Kumble’s tenure ends now, then it would be an unwanted hat-trick for one of the mostdedicated players that Indian cricket has ever seen!
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