Why search for Team India's next coach is getting absurd
It’s going to be a nail-biting Sunday for Indian cricket fans as Virat Kohli’s boys face South Africa in a must-win game in the ICC Champions Trophy. After the big win against Pakistan, the loss to Sri Lanka has been hard to stomach. In fact, it was almost an assumption India would win this match, before the Lankan Lions roared to pull off a great chase.
As the Indian team prepares to take on the strong South Africans, experts are offering their theories on the team composition. Drop Hardik Pandya or Kedar Jadhav and play R Ashwin has reached a crescendo, though what happens on Sunday before the playing XI is named cannot be predicted.
Away from the actual cricketing action on the ground, there is one man who will be inside the dressing room pondering his future. Having served Indian cricket durably as a remarkable strike bowler with his unorthodox leg spin and then becoming an astute captain, Anil Kumble has done his bit.
Appointed as coach of the Indian team by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) last year, today Kumble faces uncertainty over his job. It’s in his tenure that India posted outstanding results in Tests and the shorter formats in the last few months. Yet, the way the coach-hiring job has been handled by the Indian cricket board (BCCI), it’s nothing short of shoddy.
First things first. To advertise for the Team India coach’s job just after the team left for England was bad timing. After that, in the last three weeks, all kinds of stories have been doing the rounds.
Media reports appeared in plenty and most were based on “sources.” In an age where churning out hard news stories means the reporter goes beyond the permissible limits of kite-flying, all kinds of versions have appeared.
Today, the dressing room has been made into some kind of a human being which can speak! How else can one explain reports coming from the “dressing room” as players are certainly not going to come on record and say they don’t want Kumble as coach.
Word has it, Kumble is a hard task master and players are not comfortable with him. At the same time, one also hears 10 players don’t want Kumble. With others in fray as well for the coach’s job, including Virender Sehwag, the CAC, comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman were supposed to have interviewed candidates for the coach’s job.
Somewhere along the line, the CAC decided they needed more time as jettisoning Kumble or retaining him and recommending him for a fresh contract was not that easy. On Friday, the BCCI sent a classic press release. It stated that the decision on new coach will be made at an “appropriate time.”
In the old days, you could have well construed this as a king in old dynasty rule summoning the official priest to find an auspicious time. Surely, the June 26 special general body meeting of the BCCI is being seen as the date when there could be clarity on who will be the Team India coach.
Flip through the annals, you will find how so many coaches in Indian cricket were treated shabbily. Perhaps, the only man who walked out with his head held high was Gary Kirsten, after India won the ICC World Cup in Mumbai in 2011.
At one point of time, we were told Kumble had had enough and did not want to continue. Now, it appears, Kumble is still interested in the job and is ready to go through the recruiting process which has been entrusted to the CAC.
It’s a crazy scenario. The CAC comprises players who played under Kumble and are aware of his pedigree today as a coach. Caught between firebrand captain Virat Kohli and unprofessional BCCI officials, the CAC finds itself in a tricky situation.
There are whispers heard in the corridor that a former BCCI boss who has now been reduced to person-non-grata is still calling the shots. He, apparently, does not want Kumble at the helm because of some old BCCI politics concerning the Karnataka State Cricket Association.
For its part, the Committee of Administrators (COA), headed by Vinod Rai, is not saying anything on the coach selection. With Ramachandra Guha quitting, there is more uncertainty within the COA. The latest is, Vikram Limaye may also move out.
At this point of time, none of the BCCI officials are really bothered about how Kumble is being treated. After all, they have succeeded in deflecting the attention away from themselves.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)