The Indian cricket team’s dressing room had been smoking for quite some time but the team headed by Virat Kohli said the smoke was media created and there was no truth in it. Kohli was very vehement in his denial at the start of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017.
When Kumble resigned all the denials Kohli used to put out the fire and smoke went in vain. Anil Kumble waited for the finals with Pakistan to get over and then announced his decision. Now BCCI knew that all was not well between Kohli and Kumble but were in for a surprise when they learnt that they were not in talking terms for about six months.
A couple of days later Kohli finally broke the silence and said ““Anil bhai has taken the decision to step out and we will respect that decision”. He also said that for the last few years it was the culture of the dressing room to maintain its sanctity and nothing that happens there would be expressed in public. All this sounds as if there was a gentleman’s agreement in what was happening. But was the applecart upset with Kohli deleting his tweet that he put almost a year ago, “Heartiest welcome to @anilkumble1074 Sir. Look forward to your tenure with us. Great things in store for Indian cricket with you,” And the meetings held by BCCI could not bring Kohli and Kumble on one table to discuss the issue as there was hardly any communication between the two.
Sunil Gavaskar was visibly upset with Anil Kumble resigning. However the Cricket Advisory Committee which Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly did not give a quick green light for Kumble’s extension. There is something more in the smoke which will come out as the days go by. Will Kohli retweet and will BCCI give Kumble a send-off worthy of his stature. We will follow it up here on this channel.
