Speaking in support of Indian captain Virat Kohli regarding the ongoing fiasco of Anil Kumble’s sudden departure is Anurag Thakur, the former president of the BCCI. Thakur, who was at the charge of BCCI’s affairs for a brief span last year, spoke about the matter and mentioned that the Indian captain was being targeted without any concrete basis in the entire controversy which surrounds Anil Kumble’s resignation as India’s coach.
Kumble resigned as India’s coach moments before he was supposed to leave with the team for the limited-overs tour of the West Indies and later mentioned about Kohli’s differences with his approach as the reason. Since then, several former Indian cricketers and sections of the press have been harsh towards Kohli, apparently slamming his high-handed approach in dealing with the coach of the team.
Thakur though feels otherwise and mentioned that the current structure of the BCCI isn’t capable of dealing with such episodes.
“Virat is being unreasonably targetted, I think this discussion should stop. Virat has the ability to take Indian cricket to new heights in the next 10 years. This is not the first time that a cricketer is being targetted. In the past too, captains and former captains have been targetted,” said Thakur.
“The previous BCCI set-up was more adept at handling such situations. People should give the Board credit that it honoured the Cricket Advisory Committee’s recommendation but also gave Kumble only a one-year contract so that the Board was free to take a call if there were to be any problems,” added Thakur.
Thakur went on to quote that questions should be asked about the current functioning of the BCCI and its policies.
“We never allowed such things to be leaked. When Kumble was offered a one-year contract, nobody said that they had any objection to it,” he said. “In the 7-8 months of Kumble’s contract when we were in charge, nobody spoke of any problem between them. Questions should be asked from those who are running the Board now as to how these circumstances have arisen,” he said.