Reports: Virat Kohli abused Anil Kumble before Champions Trophy final

Following Anil Kumble’s resignation as the head coach of Indian team, another stinging revelation has surfaced. According to media reports, prior to the finals of the Champions Trophy, the Indian skipper Virat Kohli abused coach Anil Kumble. During a team meeting two days ahead of the final, Kohli had an argument with Kumble and he even went on to use expletives against him.

Kohli also told Kumble that members of the Indian team were not in favour of him continuing as coach. The former Indian leggie stepped down from the helm following weeks of speculation in the media. Several reports too claimed of a possible rift between the duo during the India-Australia series. Kumble’s letter also highlighted Kohli’s reservation with his ‘style’ as the reason behind his decision.

Gavaskar stands for Kumble

Speaking to NDTV, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar came down heavily on reports that suggested that Kumble was ‘overbearing’ and a hard taskmaster. “So you want softies. You want somebody to just tell you, ‘ok boys, don’t practice today because you guys are not feeling well, ok take a holiday, go shopping’. You want that kind of a person. If somebody is a hard taskmaster and he has got you results like Anil Kumble has got over the last one year,” he said.

Sanjay Bangar is expected to take charge as the interim coach while R Sridhar continues as fielding coach and MV Sridhar the BCCI GM of Operations has taken over as the manager of the side. This recent development only goes on to establish the fact that the alleged rift between coach Kumble and Kohli were true after all. Veteran Indian opener Virender Sehwag is one of the applicants who applied for the post.

The other candidates to have applied for the post include the Australian Tom Moody, Englishman Richard Pybus, former Indian fast bowler Dodda Ganesh and former India A coach Lalchand Rajput.

The Men in Blue have already landed for their tour to the Carribean without a head coach. Thus it is of utmost importance for the BCCI to appoint a new coach to replace Kumble before the team goes to Sri Lanka on their next tour.