The former India captain, Mohammad Azharuddin, has commented on Anil Kumble stepping down from the post of Head Coach of Indian cricket team two months ago, as he has said that watching him walk away from the post was a sad feeling for him,
“I feel very sad for him. It is sad that something like this happened to Anil. Knowing Anil, I don’t think he is that type of a person. Maybe he thought it is better to be away than losing your self-respect. I think he took the right decision,” Azharuddin said.
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Azhar was speaking at a function in Hyderabad, at a pre-launch event of a game named Azhar. Incidentally, his comments have come on a day when Kumble, 27 years ago, made his Test debut under his captaincy. The leg-spinner emerged out as the most successful bowler for India, as at present, he is the highest wicket-taker for Indian cricket team in both Test and ODIs.
Kumble was appointed as the Head Coach of the Indian cricket team in the month of June in 2016. Reports suggested that the on his first tour, there was a clash of ideas between him and Kohli when the coach wanted Cheteshwar Pujara to be given a longer run. The next moment came during the Ranchi Test against Australia when Kumble wanted to play Kuldeep Yadav but Kohli benched him.
The matter got worse when Kuldeep made his Test debut in the next game, where Kohli sat on the bench due to a shoulder injury.
It was after the end of ICC Champions Trophy when the coach finally decided to call it a day, by publically mentioning of having ‘untenable’ relation with the skipper. Ravi Shastri has now replaced the leggie for the coveted job.
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Further, Azhar also commented on the matter of S Sreesanth, whose ban has been invoked by a Kerala court,
“I think if the court order has come then they have to follow it. He has lost four years but Sreesanth will have to bring his fitness up to the required standards. He will have to put in good performances. According to me, Sreesanth was one of the finest fast bowlers but I think he was not handled properly. If he was handled better, he would have turned out to be a good fast bowler. If you see very few bowlers could manage to land the ball on the seam as he did, so he was very good. The BCCI will have to take a positive decision (on Sreesanth) if the court has given an order,” he said.
Sreesanth was banned by BCCI in the year 2013 on basis of match fixing in IPL. Though he was freed of all the charges in 2015 when a Delhi court cleared all the three players of any involvement in fixing. However, BCCI did not invoke the ban at that time. This time though, the court has ordered the Indian board to remove the ban on the fast bowler and there are chances of him making a comeback in the domestic cricket this season.
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