It was the morning after. The Indian team room at the plush Grange Hotel in central London was deserted, with empty chairs and cardboard boxes scattered around. Still dazed after the overnight defeat, most players had decided to have breakfast in the confines of their rooms overlooking the Thames, reflecting on what had gone wrong in the big battle with arch-rival Pakistan.
Meanwhile, a bigger battle was waiting to explode. The pitch this time was an emergency BCCI meeting in London, attended by cricket advisory committee (CAC) members Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and V.V.S. Laxman, BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, Indian captain Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble. It was a last attempt to avert the inevitable – Kumble’s exit.
Kohli was adamant. He didn’t want Kumble as coach anymore. The discussion soon turned into a full-scale verbal spat between the two. “That’s it, I’m quitting,” said the coach and left the room. The decision was officially announced on June 20. The Kohli-Kumble rift came out in the open when the BCCI suddenly advertised last month, seeking applications for the position of Team India coach. Kumble’s one-year contract was coming to an end but the BCCI decision to not renew it came as a shocker – the general perception was that he would continue till World Cup 2019.
Virat’s animus apparently goes back to the days when Kumble was captain of IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore and Virat used to play under him. But Kumble, in a letter published via his Twitter handle, writes: “I was surprised since I had always respected the role boundaries between the captain and the coach.” Interestingly, he says, the BCCI informed him about the captain’s reservations only on June 19, a day before he quit.
“Anil bhai has to realise that we are international players and that we know our responsibilities. He can’t keep setting school-boy rules…,” says a Team India player. But the records speak in favour of Kumble. India won 12 out of the 17 Tests played under him, losing just one. The team won the Test series against West Indies, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia.
It’s now over to the CAC trio to pick the next coach. The Indian team has already reached the West Indies to play an ODI series from June 23. They will be without a chief coach for at least the next three weeks. Virat had been pushing for Virender Sehwag, but he seems to have changed his mind after the latter put up a condition – he wanted his own support staff. The captain has now gone back to his first preference, Ravi Shastri, who, along with Kumble, had applied for the post last year. Shastri had lost out last year (he openly blamed Ganguly for the rejection), but insiders say it was then BCCI president Anurag Thakur who had stiffed him.
Till now, the CAC members have been lenient, but they are unlikely to concede to Virat’s demand for Shastri (the two have met twice in London). “Kumble’s exit should be enough to make Virat happy,” says a BCCI official. “The captain doesn’t choose the coach, it’s the CAC’s prerogative. I don’t think Ganguly will opt for Shastri after the bitterness last year.”
Kumble had made his case weaker by demanding a Rs 1 crore hike in salary (he was getting Rs 6.5 crore a year for his services). The former Indian captain also irked several BCCI officials when he pushed for India’s participation in the Champions trophy. Some of the senior officials had been contemplating a boycott after the International Cricket Council slashed India’s share of global revenues and revised the administrative norms.
