Kumble takes the reins

The moment Anil Kumble revealed that he had applied for the post of Indian cricket team’s head coach, his success was considered a foregone conclusion. Kumble was a determined, hard-working cricketer who stretched the limits of his talent to become India’s greatest match-winner. During his brief stint as captain, he showed himself to be an aggressive, intelligent and dignified leader; he quit cricket the moment he realised that his fitness and abilities had declined and that he was no more competitive at the international level. Among the 57 applicants for the coach’s job, Kumble had the best credentials as a cricketer. There was one other factor that made him the favourite: the final selection was to be done by Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, who had shared the dressing room with Kumble for a very long time and were first-hand witness to his ability and character.

Even though Kumble has never coached any team at any level, his stature — and the stature of his selectors — make it impossible for anyone to find fault with his selection. It has emerged that BCCI president Anurag Thakur wanted Rahul Dravid as coach, and it is evident that Test team captain Virat Kohli was very comfortable with Ravi Shastri, the erstwhile team director. BCCI, thus, must be congratulated for not imposing the choice of its top brass on Ganguly, Tendulkar and Laxman. BCCI must be faulted, though, for not sticking to the criteria for the job that it had advertised — its first requirement was that the “candidates should have coached at the international or first-class level”.

Strangely, Kumble has been given only a one-year contract — perhaps BCCI still has some misgivings about him. However, Kumble should find success over the next 12 months because India play most of their cricket in the next season at home. His biggest challenge will be to make the team competitive in South Africa, England and Australia. Hopefully, he’d find greater success in this endeavour as coach than he did as a bowler.