Kolkata: The Cricket Advisory Committee members met during the India-Sri Lanka Champions Trophy match and decided to extend Anil Kumble’s stay as the head coach of the Indian team. While Kumble being retained as the coach can be virtually considered to be a final one, it has to still be ratified in a Special General Meeting (SGM) on the 26th of July after a request to defer the entire process was made by acting president CK Khanna to secretary Amitabh Chaudhary.
As a result of this decision, Anil Kumble would accompany the Indian team to the West Indies. The BCCI has decided to defer the decision of announcing the coach during a major tournament like the Champions Trophy.
Last month, the BCCI had advertised the position of the head coach as Kumble’s one-year term ends after the Champions Trophy. It also received applications from Virender Sehwag, Lalchand Rajput, Dodda Ganesh, Richard Pybus and Tom Moody. Kumble was a direct entrant in the process.
Sri Lanka’s stunning victory over India makes the qualification scenario in Group B interesting as now India are in a must-win situation and they need to win their match against South Africa to make it to the semis. Also, this is for the first time, Kumble is under pressure in his whole tenure as this is his first ICC tournament as the coach of the Indian side.
The bulk of the success that the Indian team has achieved under Kumble in the past one year has been mostly under favourable conditions at home.
Kumble’s appointment last year was meant to cultivate discipline in the team despite them doing considerably well in all formats of the game.
The members of the Cricket Advisory Committee has supported Kumble all the way through despite some BCCI officials seeking a change in the guard.
Also, there were a lot of talks of an internal conflict within the Indian team between Kumble and skipper Virat Kohli, which the latter rubbished off as rumours.
Virender Sehwag, who was considered to be a favourite for the job seemed to have too casual an approach for the same as earlier he had sent a two-line application for the post.
The BCCI had said that it wasn’t under any pressure to decide the coach as they were just following a normal procedure as Kumble had just a year’s contract.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times)