India's Virat Kohli expresses strong reservations against head coach Anil Kumble, claims report

As the dust settles after India’s campaign in Champions Trophy 2017, which ended with a 180-run defeat to Pakistan on Sunday, the controversy regarding an alleged feud between India’s captain Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble has come on the fore once again. According to a report by The Telegraph, in a meeting that is understood to have lasted for more than an hour, Kohli has communicated his “strong reservations” regarding the possibility of Kumble continuing as the coach of the Indian team. [caption id=“attachment_3714365” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of India’s Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble. Reuters[/caption] Kohli is reported to have met the Cricket Advisory Committee(CAC) members — Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS. Laxman on the eve of the tournament final on Sunday. The report notes that the meeting was also attended by BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, CEO Rahul Johri  and general manager MV Sridhar. The news comes after Kumble recently re-applied for the position of the coach. The other candidates in the fray include former Indian opener Virender Sehwag and Australia’s Tom Moody, who are tipped to be the front runners for the job. “Kohli is very clear about where he stands vis-a-vis Kumble. It seems the relationship is beyond the repair stage,” a source is quoted as saying in the report. CAC is likely to meet Kumble on Monday to see if a patch-up can be worked out. The Committee faces an awkward situation as it had been the one who had intially appointed Kumble last year as India’s head coach. Other than the alleged feud between Kumble and Kohli, something which the committee members have not commented on so far, there are not many reasons to remove him as India’s coach as the team has performed reasonably well under him since the last year. Another issue that is giving some problems to CAC is the importance of the captain’s opinion in deciding the coach for the team. A source is quoted in the report, saying, “To what extent should the captain have a say? Also, can we have a situation where Kohli, no matter how successful and brilliant he is, gets complete charge? Big questions need to be settled.” The Committee is also grappling with the possibility of Kohli having some issues with the next head coach also. The report also mentions that Ravi Shastri’s easy going approach is also being missed, although CAC is not expected to go back to him after ignoring him the last time. Although Committee of Administrators(COA) is reported to be in favour of letting Kumble travelling with the team to the West Indies tour, there is still a lack of clarity regarding it.