Kolkata: The Indian team has been very much in the news of late for the alleged spat between coach Anil Kumble and skipper Virat Kohli. Reports suggest that the players are unhappy with Kumble’s, “overbearing” style of work and have also stated that his “headmaster” like attitude isn’t something that is accepted in the dressing room.
While BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary continues to deny talks of the rift in the Indian team dismissing them as mere speculations, coach Anil Kumble has finally reacted to all these and has expressed his unwillingness to continue as the coach of the Indian team. While the Committee of Administrators would try their best to persuade Kumble to stay on but if he doesn’t stay, then Virender Sehwag would be India’s new coach.
This undoubtedly would be a dreadful news for Indian cricket lovers as the team is just days away from it’s marquee clash against Pakistan.
So does this conflict between Kohli and Kumble a new development in Indian cricket? But reports suggest something else as in 2016, Kohli had apprehensions about Kumble as a coach when the latter was appointed for the top job. As a matter of fact, according to former BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke, skipper Virat Kohli had opposed Kumble’s appointment as the coach and later had to be persuaded by the BCCI to accept the same.
So is this a problem with the new age cricketers that they are unable to accept old school methods of coaching from former legendary figures?
Well, Virat Kohli definitely doesn’t like anyone who questions him regarding stuffs like his drawbacks and fielding strategies and this does not spell a good future for the coach. The example of South African Ray Jennings, being sacked as the coach of the IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore is a perfect testimony to this fact. Jennings says that it was Kohli who had pushed for a change of coach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore set up and later the position was filled by New Zealand all-rounder Daniel Vettori.
He further adds that he wasn’t surprised with the Kohli-Kumble conflict which is surely looming over as a dark cloud over Indian cricket at present.
But can this team, which couldn’t accept Kumble despite enjoying a considerable amount of success under him accept another veteran cricketer with no formal coaching experience in the form of Sehwag?
Sehwag seems to have a slight advantage over Kumble in this regard as the right-handed opener from Delhi has played some amount of cricket with these new age Indian cricketers, which thus helps him with some knowledge whatsoever about the team and it’s mentalities.
But things wouldn’t be as easy for Sehwag as it might look like. As a matter of fact, the former cricketer has had his issues with former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the past. Things between Sehwag and Dhoni started to turn sour way back in 2007 when Dhoni the skipper had benched Sehwag for the inaugural World T20 final against Pakistan.
Also, the rift intensified even more in 2012 during the CB series in Australia where Dhoni said that he wouldn’t play Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag in the same match because of their slow fielding, which costs the team 20-25 runs.
Sehwag, although said that he wasn’t aware of these remarks by Dhoni but answered back in style after he took a stunner of a catch at mid wicket to dismiss Mahela Jayawardene in match. After the game, he asked when asked about his fielding, “Did you see my catch?” and had said that, “We are same for the last 10 years. Nothing has changed.”
Also working as a coach might be difficult for Sehwag as he himself jokingly had said that he did exactly what the coach told him not to do. But nonetheless, it is for the future to see as to whether this young Indian team could accept coaching guidances from cricketers of the bygone era.