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Internet Desk: Anil Kumble who was the head coach for the Indian national team decided to step down from his post after he didn’t travel with the squad to West Indies for the upcoming tour last Monday. According to the reports a failing relationship between the Indian skipper Virat Kohli and the Indian head Coach Anil Kumble reached to a dead end and finally Kumble decided to leave his job.
What was the reason behind the rift between the two superstars? Why Kumble had to resign within just one year? What had happened inside the dressing room at The Oval? The reasons are as follows…
- Kohli-Kumble Relationship: If the sources are to be believed the relationship between Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble was not that good from the start. Few years’ back Kumble was the mentor of IPL based franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore. On that time Kohli was the most promising player of RCB. His chaotic life style outside the ground was always in the news on that time; on the other hand Kumble always wanted his players to be disciplined in their life. Few days back the Cricket Advisory Committee of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman came to know that the relation between the two were very poor since the RCB days. The opposite question was raised, why did not the BCCI enquired about the relationship between Kohli and Kumble when they appointed him as India coach?
- Start of Kohli-Kumble rift: According to the reports the first confrontation between the two had happened in the New Zealand series at home. After that England came to tour India. If sources are to be believed from this series Kumble started offering different views with skipper Kohli. It has been learnt that Kumble was not happy with some bowling changes of Kohli and the skipper was not pleased with the interference.
- Pune’s turning pitch went against India: India played their first test against Australia in last February. The team management prepared a turner against Steve Smith and Co. but it went against the Indian team and the hosts lost the match in just three days and Australia took a 1-0 lead in the series. At the post match press conference Kumble told that he didn’t tell anybody to prepare a turner. After that a question was raised that if the coach hadn’t ordered the turner who did that? Was it Kohli? The reports came out that Kumble told the Maharashtra Cricket Association to prepare a turner. The talks started in the team whether the coach is giving two different statements. When Ravi Shastri was the Director of the team, he openly said it to the media that we have good spinners that are why we always build spin friendly track on our home turf and we have done the right thing. When the Indian team travels abroad the other teams prepare their pitch which helps their own players. Kumble didn’t accept to take the total responsibility on his shoulder like Shastri that was another reason why many players didn’t like Kumble.
- Two icons of two generations: After wearing the country’s jersey both of them always thinks of winning the match at any cost. But they both have lot of differences too. They both belong to different generations. During his playing days Kumble only spent his time with the team mates who were from South. Kohli on the other hand is much open minded, he loves to spend times with all his team mates, friends and family. According to a board official,” Both of them cannot agree on anything. What the coach says, the captain wants the reverse. The both had different opinions on the playing XI. How a team can move forward in this way?
- Complaint of the violation of the limit: Kohli blamed to the Board and the Cricket Advisory Committee that the coach had repeatedly intervened in place of his independence. The coach always intervened on selecting the playing XI. Not only this the coach also gave him instructions about changing the batting and the bowling orders. Though Kumble had ruled out all the allegations against him, Kohli told all these to Sourav and Sachin in a meeting in London last week. The CAC had a meeting with Kumble and Kohli after the final on Monday. The committee had tried their best to solve the issues between the two, but Kohli didn’t want to listen anything. After that Kumble decided to step down.
- What happened in the Oval dressing room?
After a humiliating defeat on the hands of Pakistan in the Champions Trophy 2017 final, Kumble gave a speech in the dressing room. Though he gave some enthusiastic lecture for the future but also he also said some harsh words to the team. According to the sources he was very angry with Jasprit Bumrah’s ‘No Ball’. On the other hand in his speech Kohli backed the cricketers and said it happens in cricket.