Dubai: The Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) in India has invited applications for the post of the Head Coach just before the India team left for the Champions Trophy, leading to speculations that the BCCI is unhappy with their present coach Anil Kumble.
Reports from India suggest that the former Indian spinner’s tenure as coach may not be extended in the light of Kumble playing a role in players’ pay negotiation just before the Indian Premier League (IPL) final.
The BCCI did not want the coach to be involved in remunerations for the players.
It is understood that Kumble spoke to BCCI’s Committee of Administrators (CoA) along with Indian skipper Virat Kohli asking for a 150 per cent increase in retainership of ‘A’ division players and that Kumble himself also wanted a hike in his salary.
Kumble’s term is to end at the conclusion of the Champions Trophy but with the West Indies tour coming up immediately after the tournament in England, BCCI could have either extended his contract or called application for a coach much before the start of the Champions Trophy.
If the BCCI preferred Kumble, he could have even been given an automatic extension as most successful coaches around the world with national teams get.
So given the current situation where Kumble has not been given an automatic extension and applications for the post have been invited, interviews will not be held and completed before June 23 when India fly out to West Indies for five one-dayers and one T20 match. Hence, a temporary coach will have to accompany the team.
The BCCI’s three-member Cricket Advisory Committee is made up of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman and they will be picking the candidate. Last year, Ravi Shastri, who played the role of coach and Team India Director, was ignored and Kumble got appointed in controversial circumstances, leading to even a public spat between Ganguly and Shastri over the selection process.
For this year’s appointment a CoA member will oversee the appointment process.
However, there has been a debate already happening as to why Kumble is being removed despite having guided India to a dozen victories in 17 Tests, drawing four and losing just one against Australia.
In fact, India even retained the No. 1 Test ranking under Kumble’s guidance.
India also won the limited-overs series against New Zealand and England during his term.
A BCCI official has been quoted as saying: “Kumble is bargaining for himself as well as the players. Fair enough but tomorrow if BCCI decides to replace him, he will not be in a position to bargain. Some of his demands have been simply inexplicable.”
Kumble even has asked for promotions for his support staff and has requested to appoint former left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan as India’s bowling coach.
Looking at his demands, it’s clear that the Indian cricket board is not very happy. BCCI will be keen to show it’s the boss and any players-coach nexus against the board will be nipped in the bud.
