Reported conflict between icons Kumble, Kohli distressing. Needs quick closure
Controversies have a knack of breaking out at the most inappropriate moments, leading one to wonder if the parties involved do it on purpose or are victims of the timing. Just when the Indian cricket team has begun its campaign in the Champions Trophy, the media is over-flowing with news of ruptures in the relationship between captain Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble. Some narratives have it that the schism is too deep to be mended. It all began after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to call for fresh applicants to be the coach once Kumble's term expires after the Champions Trophy ends. Tongues began to wag, with one section of experts pointing to Kumble's track record as coach in the past year when the Indian team won nearly every important match it played, and saying his extension should have been a formality. The counter-group maintained that the BCCI was simply following rules and that Kumble had been free to re-apply. As the verbal battle raged and applications for the prestigious position poured in, it has become clear that Kumble is unlikely to remain. Has Kumble become a victim of the superstar culture that a close-knit section of the Indian cricket fraternity has promoted — as a historian and until recently a member of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) set up under the Supreme Court's aegis to administer the BCCI, claimedIJ We don't know, though the historian, who has now quit the CoA in protest, has paraded many heavyweight names to prove his point. What we do know is that both Kumble and Kohli are superstars and their enormous contribution to Indian cricket cannot be downplayed. They may be temperamentally very different persons and their approach to the game can vary; nonetheless, they are invaluable. Kohli was chosen as coach by a panel of equally eminent former cricketers — Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and VVS laxman. Now they must discover a replacement for the man they had picked, incidentally through a process which had run into controversies of its own with one of the strongest claimants, Ravi Shastri, crying foul.
It is difficult to believe that captain Kohli can have disrespect for Kumble, and vice versa. The two are aware of each other's high stature which has come not from politicking but through sheer performance. The bad blood, if any, has to be out of sharp differences in approach. If attempts are being made to exaggerate those differences through the infusion of extraneous elements, it is disgusting, sad, and bad for Indian cricket. Kumble is a gentleman and many will find it difficult to believe that he could have acted in an undignified manner during his interactions with the captain. Kohli does have a reputation for speaking his mind out, but not the notoriety of running down icons for petty causes. However, if the two cannot get along well, it's best they part amicably.