Sourav Would Have Thrust Kumble Down Virat’s Throat: Vinod Rai

Asian Age

Vinod Rai has finally spoken to the media about the infamous rift between the former head coach of the Indian cricket team Anil Kumble and the current Indian captain Virat Kohli. Rai was in charge of the functioning of the BCCI as the head of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) when the rift hit Indian cricket.

Rai revealed that he was in favor of Kumble continuing as head coach, but he couldn’t keep him at his post because Kumble didn’t have any extension clause in his contract and Kohli didn’t want Kumble’s contract to be extended either.

Kumble’s disciplined approach helped India excel across all formats, but his rift with Kohli led to his resignation. No one exactly knows what were the differences between the duo, but the fading relationship of the two greats of Indian cricket was clearly visible.

According to Rai, he had a chat with Kohli, but he wasn’t able to convince him to sort his issues with Kumble. So, he asked Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly to try and convince Kohli as he thought Tendulkar and Ganguly, with their stature, could have dealt with the matter better.

But, Ganguly told him that he had already spoken to Virat and the meeting didn’t yield any results as Virat didn’t change his mind.

Rai thinks if the matter had surfaced today when Ganguly is the BCCI president and has got much more authority than he had back then, he would have exte and would have directed Virat to work with him. But, it might have lead to a negative environment and might have affected the relationship of the captain and the board.

“If this had happened today, Sourav would have thrust Kumble down Virat’s throat. But it could have created more tensions. I respected Kumble because he walked out.” Rai was quoted saying by the Hindustan Times.

 

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