What’s the story?
Former BCCI President Anurag Thakur is of the opinion that India captain Virat Kohli has been unreasonably targeted over the imbroglio involving the former coach Anil Kumble, which has supposedly led to the latter’s resignation.
Thakur said that the discussions over the Kohli-Kumble row must stop now, allaying the naysayers mentioning that nobody had expressed an objection when Kumble was offered a one-year contract.
“Virat is being unreasonably targeted, I think this discussion should stop. Virat has the ability to take Indian cricket to new heights in the next 10 years. This is not the first time that a cricketer is being targeted. In the past too, captains and former captains have been targeted,” Thakur told PTI in an interview.
The former administrator was quick to pick out loopholes in the current BCCI administrative set-up, quipping that the previous regime under his tutelage was more experienced at handling such issues.
“The previous BCCI set-up was more adept at handling such situations. People should give the Board credit that it honoured the Cricket Advisory Committee’s recommendation but also gave Kumble only a one-year contract so that the Board was free to take a call if there were to be any problems,” Thakur said.
In case you didn’t know...
Anil Kumble resigned from the post of India head coach last Thursday citing the ‘reservations’ that the captain had about his style of coaching as the prime reason behind the move in his unofficial resignation letter shared across social media platforms.
Virat Kohli, however, has not divulged anything on what those reservations were. When asked about the same at a pre-match presser in the West Indies, where India are playing a five-match ODI series, the 28-year-old expressed that he respects Kumble’s decision but feels that the sanctity of the dressing room must be maintained.
‘What happens in the dressing room stays in the dressing room,’ was Kohli’s opinion.
Details
At the time of Kumble’s appointment as India coach in July 2016, the process of selecting the coach of the Indian team was brought into the public domain for the first time. A list of candidates was released by the BCCI who had expressed their willingness to coach the Indian team and who fulfilled the criteria set forth by the board in its advertisement.
After Kumble’s appointment, it was also let known that his contract would expire at the end of the Champions Trophy and hence it could be justified that the BCCI was right in terms of re-advertising the post by following the ‘due process’ while giving Kumble a direct entry into the process.
Mentioning that Kumble’s contract was set to expire after a year, Thakur pointed out that nobody had raised objections when the coach of appointed. He also questioned the current BCCI administration over the problems that have surfaced and as to why have they not been able to combat them.
“We never allowed such things to be leaked. When Kumble was offered a one-year contract, nobody said that they had any objection to it. In the 7-8 months of Kumble’s contract when we were in charge, nobody spoke of any problem between them (Kumble and Virat).
“Questions should be asked from those who are running the Board now as to how these circumstances have arisen.”
What’s next?
The deadline for the application submission for the post has been extended to July 9, 2017, and the BCCI hopes that despite the way the stint of one of the most successful India coach was handled, there’d be candidates interested in the job.
The BCCI has said that India would have a new coach before the tour of Sri Lanka set to begin in July-August.
Author’s take
The who’s who of the BCCI administration, which includes the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) – comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman – have been tasked with the responsibility of finding a new coach for the team, a task on which little progress seems to have been achieved.
The names of Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Lalchand Rajput, and Virender Sehwag were thrown into the mix right after the post was advertised in May, but while Sehwag was reported to have sent a two-line application form for the job, the BCCI haven’t made public a list of all the applicants who have applied.
For now, one has to wait for the deadline of July 9 to find out how many more, if any, candidates does the BCCI have the reputation to attract and then what process does the board follow to appoint the next coach.
