Kumble stumped by opposition's wrong un

Cricket Issue

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s decision to invite applicati­o­ns for the post of head coach of the Indian cricket team has been construed by ma­ny as unfair to Anil Kumble, and it’s not hard to see why.

During Kumble’s tenure as India’s head coach from last June, the Virat Kohli-led team has conquered all comers both at home and away. They have vanquished the West Indies in the Caribbean and New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia in home Test series en route to consolidating their No 1 position in the ICC Test rankings. They have not lost any of the limited-overs series either during this period, apart from a 0-1 loss to West Indies in a rain-affected T20 series in the United States. With such an impressive CV in a short time, it was but natural for anyone to expect an extension of Kumble’s one-year contract, which runs out after the Champions Trophy.

Though the move to invite fresh applications, on the face of it, is nothing more than a procedure that the Board has put in place in its bid to appear transparent in its dealings and for which Kumble himself may not have any particular objection, the systematic leaks and innuendoes being spread by faceless, anonymous (ex?) BCCI officials would have definitely upset the former India captain. There has been a concerted effort to paint Kumble as the villain of the piece, attributing acts to him that he has done merely on the request of the Committee of Administrators and statements that he has never made.

Let’s deal with his presentation before the CoA on the pay structure for the players and the support staff. Let it be clear to everyone that Kumble didn’t approach the officials for an enhanced amount on his own volition but he only did so upon a request by the Vinod Rai-led CoA. Kumble was obviously the right man for such an exercise. He, along with Rahul Dravid, was in the forefront of the successful movement for annual contracts for the Indian players, he has been on the other side of the spectrum (cricket administration) and he is well aware of what the players’ share should be. All Kumble has sought is suggest a template for the future, not necessarily seek to rake in the moolah for himself because he is the current occupant of the coach’s seat. That said, these are only proposals that he has submitted after he was asked to do so and it’s not binding on the Board to accept them. If it deems the proposals are “unimplementable”, it can politely say so but to term them as Kumble’s demands is a blatant lie and smacks of disrespect to one of India’s greatest cricketing icons.

It’s also disrespect when a cricketer of his stature and in his role as the head coach of the team isn’t invited for selection committee meetings. Again, it has been wrongly planted and circulated that Kumble has demanded himself a place in the selection panel with a voting power to boot. All he has requested for is that he be allowed to attend selection meetings in an advisory role, a practice that was followed till the time of Gary Kirsten. It was stopped when Duncan Fletcher took over the reins but then the Zimbabwean was hardly in India when there was no cricket being played. As a coach, whose main responsibility is man management and to keep the players motivated, the least he needs to know is why a player has been dropped from the team or not picked from the fringe. If his inputs as a coach in picking the team aren’t considered valuable enough then how are we to trust the judgment of a three-member panel that the BCCI itself says is too inadequate for the size of India?  

It’s also just another suggestion that Kumble has made and the Board can either agree to accommodate him or allow the present practice to continue. But then, why should truth come in the way of a juicy story?