On India's coach saga
About a fortnight ago, India failed to defend their Champions Trophy title to arch-rivals Pakistan. However, another loss was the resignation of coach Anil Kumble. A lot has happened in the last month with a number of reports on topics ranging from skipper Kohli's reservations about Kumble to the names of prospective applicants applying to take over the position. Here are my thoughts:
1. Kumble's resignation was a step in the right direction
The media loves to sell drama and that is exactly what they did when reports of Kohli's reservation with Kumble came out. It was painted as a personal battle between two heavyweights of Indian cricket - Anil Kumble, India's highest wicket taker and arguably best bowler ever versus Virat Kohli, India's captain and most prolific batsman in recent times. However, it was clearly more than that. There were many reports of multiple players giving negative feedback among Kumble. In fact, this report indicated that there was actually not a single player who was in favor of continuing with Kumble for this job. When 10 players are asked and they display reservations about a certain coach, then the fault obviously doesn't lie with just the players. In spite of all his experience and knowledge, Kumble didn't seem to connect with the correct lot - which surely is a fairly settled team. Therefore, it was more a case of coach versus players rather than coach versus captain.
Sunil Gavaskar, India's original master blaster, jumped in to defend the coach by saying "If cricketers want a coach who lets them shop, Anil Kumble is the wrong man". I am not quite sure what Gavaskar meant when he made that statement. If he is trying to question the work ethic and commitment of this Indian team, then I am not sure he has it right. There is little doubt that this is one of the fittest and best fielding sides India has had over the past 3 decades. It's probably not the best idea to question the work ethic of a team when the skipper bats for seven hours in a test match and then goes to the gym to take his fitness to the next level.
There is little doubt that BCCI should have handled the matter better. When players were asked for feedback about the coach, it seemed to have reached the media prior to reaching the coach himself. Kumble admitted in his resignation letter that he received the news of the captain's reservations about his style just one day prior, even though media had been airing the claims for more than 2 weeks at that point.
At the end of the day, cricket teams are run by captains. When India performed badly in tests during the 2011-14 period, the fans called for the sacking of MS Dhoni and not Duncan Fletcher. India's team at the 2003 World Cup which performed well to finish runners-up was always Ganguly's team and not John Wright's. Therefore, when a settled team like the current India team with an in-form skipper has reservations about the coach, the only way forward was to ask the coach to step aside and move on.
2. Why not Ravi Shastri?
Over the past month, I have seen a number of people on various blogs as well as Twitter outrage over the suggestion or report of Ravi Shastri's appointment as India's head coach. This definitely surprises me since Shastri was one of the top two frontrunners for the job last year as well. It is also well known that he seems to have the support of skipper Virat Kohli. Additionally, in spite of Shastri's own reluctance to apply again, Sachin Tendulkar - one of the members of the CAC which was tasked with the job of finding a coach - himself influenced Shastri to reconsider.
Yes, Shastri doesn't have a lot of coaching experiences but India reached the #1 ranking in tests when he served as Team Director after Duncan Fletcher's departure. What this implies is that not only did he play a part in the team's ascent but he has already worked with most of this current lot. Therefore, he should be surely considered seriously for the position of India's coach. If the only reason for his rejection is the fact that he doesn't get along with Saurav Ganguly (another CAC member), then we need to re-consider Ganguly's position on the CAC.