Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has slammed reports suggesting that outgoing Team India coach was a ‘hard taskmaster’ which forced the players to express their displeasure to the BCCI.
Kumble’s one-year contract with Team India had ended after the conclusion of the ICC Champions Trophy last week. However, the Indian cricket board had asked him to extend his tenure for one more series and accompany the Men in Blue to the Caribbeans for the upcoming limited-overs series. However, Kumble, on Tuesday (June 20), left everyone shell-shocked by stepping down as the head coach of the team. The reason behind Kumble’s sudden decision is speculated as his style of coaching which has not gone down too well with some senior players including skipper Virat Kohli. In fact, there was also a report of rift between the coach and the skipper in the buildup to the Champions Trophy.
Coming down heavily on those reports, Gavaskar said the players who are complaining should be left out of the team and not Kumble who has enjoyed a phenomenal success both as a coach as well as a player.
“So you want softies. You want somebody to just tell you, ‘ok boys, don’t practice today because you guys are not feeling well, ok take a holiday, go shopping’. You want that kind of a person. If somebody is a hard taskmaster and he has got you results like Anil Kumble has got over the last one year. If any of the players are complaining, I feel those players are the ones who should be left out of the team,” Gavaskar told NDTV.
“Because honestly, what Anil Kumble has achieved for India as a player and what he has achieved for India over the last one year, has been nothing short of phenomenal. So I would rather not have Anil Kumble being maligned or being bad-mouthed as a hard taskmaster or his headmasterly approach for what I have been reading in the papers,” he added.
Kumble, who is India’s highest wicket-taker in Tests, began his stint as a coach with a 2-0 Test series win in West Indies. Under his guidance, the team achieved numero uno status in Test cricket after series win over New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia. He also guided Team India to the final of the recently-concluded Champions Trophy.
Gavaskar further said that Kumble’s exit is sending a wrong signal for the new coach.
But what this is sending a signal for the next coach is either bow down to what the players want you to do, otherwise you, like one of India’s cricket legends Anil Kumble, you will have to step down and that is a sad, sad, sad message,” explained Gavaskar.
BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxaman, which has selected Kumble as the coach, was willing to extend Kumble’s contract. But despite their willingness, nothing positive panned out as the nasty episode concluded with Kumble’s resignation.
“Once the CAC (the Cricket Advisory Committee) had given its ok, I would have thought that Anil would carry on. I have very little idea about the differences between the two (Kohli and Kumble), if at all there were any differences, but it is a sad day because he has been one of the greatest cricketers that India has produced and for him to not want to do the job for whatever reason, and perhaps he might come up with the reasons over the next couple of days but that is really sad for Indian cricket,” Gavaskar said.
“There will always be differences in a group of more than two or three people. That’s bound to happen when you are in a tense situation… India has won everything since the time Anil took over. I can’t see Kumble doing much wrong in one year and the only reason this kind of a day has come is clearly because there has to be something which didn’t quite gel in that group,” he added.