Kumble Should be Coach Cum Captain

Sounds like Gary Kirsten has the job of coach. It also sounds like the BCCI went to the other end of the spectrum after Greg Chappell. If Gary’s cricketing style and career are a measure of his nature then its likely that India have found a dogged, committed, hard-working individual. However, it might just be a case of “good guy, bad timing”

The question that does come to mind. Does Team India really need a coach at this stage?

India has won the T20 and appears to be going strong in this form of the game. Likewise on the Test front India under Kumble has started to perform well. The ODI team under Dhoni also appears to be under fair bit of control. Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad are already around to focus on specific areas of the game.

Then why bother with a new coach at this stage?

Under these circumstances it might have been best to appoint Kumble as both Coach and Captain. This way, he gets to hang out and bond with the younger folks who play the other forms of the game. Kumble can certainly add as much value if not more than Kirsten himself. Adding Kirsten to the mix especially at a time when things are going fairly well for India might be a needless complication.

It all boils down to continuing lack of professionalism on the part of BCCI.

It is highly possible that Gary Kirsten took the job without even meeting the other stalwarts in the team besides the captain. While it might sound like being beyond the scope of normal procedure, it makes sense for him to have done this. Given the god-like status of someone like Tendulkar, it makes a lot of sense for Kirsten to have chatted with Sachin (and possibly the David, Ganguly, Dhoni) before taking the job of coach even if the BCCI did not facilitate this. One can only hope that he did.