The former Head of BCCI Committee of Administrators (CoA), Vinod Rai, clears the air on the infamous story between former India captain Virat Kohli and former India Head Coach Anil Kumble. The media reports in 2017 always showed that the then captain Kohli and then Head Coach Kumble had differences but Vinod Rai has made it clear that nothing of that sort was brought to his notice. “This is not correct to say that there were differences between Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble. There were no differences between them. I have only written that when the time came to renew Anil Kumble’s contract, we consulted the team and then Virat said that the junior members of the team feel intimidated by Anil Kumble because of his discipline. There was nothing like the difference between Kumble and Kohli. Neither I had any such information nor I have written, “ said former BCCI CoA Head Vinod Rai while speaking exclusively to ANI.
Vinod Rai also clarified that the decision of selecting a coach was not his responsibility but it was the job of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC).
“The board did try to convince Virat Kohli but the selection of coach is done by Cricket’s Advisory Committee (CAC). The CAC comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman only selected Anil Kumble as coach earlier. I wrote this thing in the book when CAC was selecting the coach that you people should speak to the team and the coach because we were outsiders. If senior players like Sachin, Sourav and VVS speak to the players then the impact is different and if we speak, then it will not be that effective. So, these three spoke to the captain and the coach, “ explained Vinod Rai.
“There is no doubt that Kumble was a good coach we could not have got a better coach than Anil Kumble and that is why, Kumble was selected. The only misfortune was that Kumble got a contract for only one year and I just said that CAC also reappointed to select Anil Kumble but the Kumble-Kohli issue had absolutely no issues. Nothing of this sort came to our notice. I have written in the book that this thing came to our notice in April and we took charge on 30th January. So, we did not get the chance to see it in the space of two months, “ told Vinod Rai.
The former Comptroller and Auditor General spoke highly about Anil Kumble the coach and called him a dignified man.