Welcome Back Jumbo! Anil Kumble Named India’s Head Coach

A Jumbo beginning!

(Photo: Reuters)

Eight years after announcing his retirement from International cricket, Anil Kumble will make his comeback into the Indian dressing room– this time as the coach of the team.

The BCCI’s high profile Advisory Committee comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman interviewed 21 candidates for the job and Kumble beat fellow applicants Ravi Shastri, Tom Moody, Pravin Amre and Lalchand Rajput to the job.

While making the announcement, BCCI President Anurag Thakur did stress on the fact that the nationality of the applicants was not a big factor while making the final call.

It is not about Indian or foreign, it is about who is best for the job. I think we have used the services of best players who have served Indian cricket. There was no such limitation that we have to have only an Indian coach. We wanted the best for the Indian team.

Anurag Thakur, BCCI President

The 45-year-old has been signed on on a one-year contract and his support staff will be chosen by the board in the weeks to come, before the tour of West Indies in July.

Kumble’s tenure will see India play 13 Test matches, 8 ODIs & 3 T20Is in the 2016-17 home season.

Board secretary Ajay Shirke had this to say when asked about getting Kumble on board for just a year:

This is the first time that we have gone through a process starting with advertisements. It has been a large amount of cricketing process. It has been very elaborate.There were marathon meetings. This is a professional appointment and that is the reason we want to be in a position to review our decision. But I hope that we won’t need to do that,

Ajay Shirke, BCCI Secretary

Anil Kumble was the mentor of the Mumbai Indians. (Photo: BCCI)

India’s highest wicker-taker in all formats, Kumble has no previous coaching experience though he has mentored two IPL teams - Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians.

However, the former leg-spinner is the world’s third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with 619 scalps from 132 matches– behind only Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Australian Shane Warne (708).

The Karnataka player also has played 271 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and has taken 337 wickets– the most by an Indian. Despite his lack of coaching experience, his performance and national captaincy made him the most high-profile contender for the post.