Kolkata: After a painful loss to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final, there’s more in store for Indian cricket to digest as now, Anil Kumble, has resigned from the job of the head coach.
The former leg-spinner did not accompany the team to the West Indies for a limited overs series starting from June 23 and decided to remain back in England for an ICC conference. Kumble is also a member of the ICC cricket committee. He has sent his resignation to the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri.
This big announcement comes right a day after the Indian Skipper Virat Kohli met the Cricket Advisory Committee comprising Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman and expressed that he had, ‘strong reservations’ over Kumble continuing as coach till the end of the West Indies tour.
As of now, the actual reason behind his resignation is yet not known. As a matter of fact, Kohli and Kumble hardly communicated with each other during the training sessions of the recently concluded Champions Trophy, where the former leg-spinner mostly kept to himself or had some practice with the bowlers.
Rumours of a rift between Kohli and Kumble had pretty much dominated the headlines some time back as the BCCI decided not to extend the latter’s contract and thus had, invited applications for the job.
The Vinod Rai led Committee of Administrators dismissed the allegations of such a rift between the coach and the skipper. Even Kohli himself had denied reports of a rift at the beginning of the Champions Trophy.
The Cricket Advisory Committee comprising former India greats were assigned the task of selecting the new coach for the Indian team. However, they had decided to extend Kumble’s stay at the helm of affairs till the West Indies tour. But now with his sudden resignation, it becomes interesting as to what their future decision is.
The Indian team achieved a lot of success under Kumble’s tenure as the coach in the last one year. They rose to the number one position in the ICC Test rankings, beat heavyweight teams like England and Australia at home and also reached the finals of the recently concluded Champions Trophy, where they were thoroughly outplayed by arch-rivals Pakistan. His resignation thus brings about an end to what has been a phenomenal year for Indian cricket.