Why Anil Kumble should step aside as coach even if India defends the Champions Trophy title

There have been unsubstantiated reports in the media about an alleged rift between Indian cricket team coach Anil Kumble and skipper Virat Kohli. Whether it even qualifies as a rift or is just a minor passable skirmish is a hot topic of debate. If we are, however, to base our opinion on the premise that Kohli and Kumble differ in their vision for team India and its current culture, we need to have a long look into the situation

Coaching – How hard is it anyways?

During his stint with the Australian Cricket team as a coach, John Buchanan once explained precisely, the kind of relationship that must exist between a coach and a captain in cricket.

“Obviously in this process (coaching) one of the critical people to get close to is the captain. If nothing else, the relationship must be built on personal trust and respect. It does not mean continual agreement but it does mean a "public" display of unity within and outside the team.”

In the case of Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli, the worrying aspect of their relationship is not personal trust or respect; it’s the lack of ‘public’ display of unity that’s fuelling rumour mills around the clock. Speculations of their uneasy relationship aside, it’s important to understand how we got here in the first place.

The concept of a coach in cricket is very different from other sports like football or basketball. In cricket, the captain more or less calls the shots because he is the one handling the troops on the field and the team responds to, and therefore confides, in its captain. A captain thus is the commander-in-chief of a cricket team and more importantly its voice.

The recently alleged rift between Indian coach Anil Kumble and skipper Virat Kohli must be viewed through this lens. If Kohli has some reservations about Kumble continuing as a coach, he is, in every aspect speaking on behalf of the team and not acting as some rogue general with a personal grudge for him. He is the voice of this young team that might be finding Kumble’s disciplined approach to coaching ‘overbearing’.

Kumble is a hard taskmaster, no doubt, but in a sport like cricket, the dressing room needs to be a happy place for players and not a classroom with the principal micro-managing them at all times.

And this micro-management has somehow affected the team culture, assuming the reports are credible and contains some element of truth; for this is how Australia’s most successful cricket coach Buchanan defined the job of a coach.

“As a coach, I see my role clearly as making myself "redundant". I need to constantly ensure that every player himself is his "best coach", that is, he knows how to best prepare himself for competition. And how during a competition, he gives himself the best chance of succeeding.”

If that is how coaching is done, and I would never question the wisdom of a guy (Buchanan) with a 75% win record as a coach over a period of nine years, then Kumble (who is ‘over-indulgent’ and not ‘redundant’) seems to have failed.

But that’s not reason enough to let Kumble go, is it?

In India, captain is king

Kirsten and Dhoni were complementary to each other

There’s enough historical data that proves why a professional but easy going attitude on the part of the coach serves the India team well over long-term. For example, in the Gary Kirsten – MS Dhoni era, the South African understood the dynamics of the team pretty early in his tenure as coach and formed a good bond between players of all age groups including Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and captain Dhoni himself.

He was a good listener and would throw balls for the batsmen round the clock to collaborate and figure out the issues in the nets.

Same was the case in the Sourav Ganguly – John Wright era. Wright’s inadvertent gesture of anointing Dada as the ‘Alpha’ in the relationship by outsourcing the team selection to him earned him the respect of the most important member of the squad. As anyone following Indian cricket would argue, a coach, especially of an Indian cricket team, is well served if the players and the captain trust, and not fear the coach.

Kumble’s tenure, or more precisely probation, has been overwhelmingly successful. He is, no doubt, competent at his job and has produced results in the past one-year that will get him any coaching assignment in the world. But at the same time, he seems to have burned bridges, from the dressing room to the board room. This, in turn, makes his position in the Indian cricket team untenable.

A replacement will be hard to find, with Sehwag seemingly disinterested with a two-liner application and Rahul Dravid content with his current job assignment. Who knows? Perhaps a second stint for Ravi Shastri is on offer but it can turn ugly real fast if Kumble decides to stay on despite an uncomfortable relationship with Kohli. If the administrators have learned anything from the Ganguly–Chappell era then this should be an easy decision for the CAC even if India successfully defends the Champions Trophy title.