Anil Kumble's appointment as the head coach of the Indian team marks the end of an era of India being led by foreign coaches. With a lot of high profile Indian applicants for the top job and the BCCI keen to appoint someone who is familiar with the culture of the team, Kumble's appointment comes hardly as a surprise.
Before the new millennium, the Indian team had quite a few Indian legends who coached the team for over a decade until the appointment of John Wright marked a shift away from that trend. What has been the performance like of these Indian coaches who had been at the helm? Let us assess the performances of the five previous Indian cricket legends who became national coaches.
#1 Ajit Wadekar (1992 - 1996)
Ajit Wadekar is a stellar name in the Indian cricketing firmament as he is one of the few Indians to have served the nation as a player, captain, team manager, head coach and the chairman of selectors. He had a reasonably successful career as the Indian coach as the team scaled quite a few heights during his tenure.
The lynchpin of his success was his chemistry with the then Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin. Under him, India registered some memorable victories like the 3-0 whitewashing of England at home. India also enjoyed a 14-match unbeaten streak in Tests between 1992 and 1994.
They also enjoyed remarkable success in ODIs winning the 1993 Hero Cup, the Singer World series, the Wills World series and the Titan Cup. During his tenure from 1992 to 1996, the careers of several great Indian cricketers like Mohammad Azharuddin and Sachin Tendulkar blossomed.
#2 Sandeep Patil (1996)
Of all the Indian coaches who managed the Indian team, Sandeep Patil's tenure was arguably the most unsuccessful one. He coached India shortly after the 1996 World Cup but his stint was ended by a disastrous England tour that year.
The 1996 World Cup ended on a bad note for India as the team slipped to 120 for 8 while chasing the Sri Lankan total of 251 in the semi-final after which crowd trouble at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata forced the match referee to award the match to Sri Lanka.
Patil took over after the World Cup but enjoyed moderate success in three ODI tournaments in Singapore, Sharjah and Toronto that year. The England tour was a breaking point however as India lost the Test series 1-0 and the ODI series 2-0. There were widespread rumours of Patil having fallen out with the captain Azharuddin and the rest of the players. He was sacked quickly by the BCCI and replaced by Madan Lal.
Patil went on to have successful coaching careers with Kenya and Oman later. He took Kenya incredibly to the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup. He was one of the applicants for the position of the India coach recently but he was not called for the interview by the BCCI Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC).
#3 Madan Lal (1996 - 1997)
Madan Lal had the shortest tenure as the Indian coach as he was at the helm for just one year from September 1996 to September 1997. During that time, India played some really ordinary cricket losing 23 of the 38 ODIs.
Their record in Tests during that period was even more abysmal as they won just 3 of the 14 matches in that one year. The four Test defeats included the shocking defeat to the West Indies in the third Test at Bridgetown in March 1997 when India failed to chase down a target of 120 runs.
The period seemed to be disastrous for Indian cricket as captain Sachin Tendulkar said that he stopped enjoying his cricket and started having doubts about himself. In September 1997, just a year into his job, Madan Lal was sacked by the BCCI for his 'inefficient' performance.
Lal expressed his surprise saying that he was shocked by the decision and that one year is too short a time for any coach to start delivering results straight away. Anshuman Gaekwad was chosen as the new Indian coach.
#4 Anshuman Gaekwad (1997 - 1999)
For many cricket fans who grew up watching Indian cricket in the late 90s, the man who was synonymous with India's success and failures was Anshuman Gaekwad. Many remember his childlike elation after Kumble's record 10-wicket haul against Pakistan in 1999.
Taking up the coaching responsibility at a time when the Indian team was going through a difficult phase and stabilised the condition of the team. Under him, India recorded some memorable wins in ODIs.
But there were a lot of lows as well like the 1999 Australia tour where the Indian team got outplayed all in departments of the game. There were times when the Gaekwad-Tendulkar understanding seemed to be working well but Tendulkar was by no means an exceptional captain.
Those were the days when India were supremely dependent on Tendulkar and the batting maestro seemed to be struggling under the added burden of captaincy. Gaekwad was more or less a calming presence and helped lay the foundation to a team that would begin dominating from the early 2000s.
#5 Kapil Dev (1999 - 2000)
Great player but an ordinary coach -- how often do we come across this phenomenon! Kapil Dev was appointed the Indian coach in September 1999 with the hope that he could bring his world-cup winning magic to the team. The reality was drastically different as things went downhill pretty soon.
India tasted success in Dev's first home series against New Zealand but were whitewashed by Australia on their very next tour to the Down Under. They then lost to South Africa at home which were their first home series loss in 12 years.
Then the ugly match-fixing issue reared its head as Manoj Prabhakar accused Kapil Dev of having asked him to deliberately underperform in a match against Pakistan in exchange of money. It ultimately led to a CBI enquiry against Kapil Dev and he was, due to the pressure on him, forced to step down from his role.
Though Dev was subsequently exonerated by the CBI, he left his role under the cloud of ignominy that refuse to go away. His coaching record was not great either as he managed to win only one out of the 8 Tests and 9 out of the 25 ODIs played when he was in charge.
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