Virat Kohli & Anil Kumble, Who Is The Boss?

The relationship which began as a marriage made in heaven (Anil Kumble’s influence over the early, brattish Virat Kohli in the RCB squad where he was made a young captain in anticipation of his India job is well known), is heading for a divorce in hell.

- Suresh Menon

Football has super coaches, so do basketball, hockey and other team sports. Cricket, by its nature, abhors super coaches. Not even Bob Woolmer or John Buchanan could claim to exist on a higher plane than the captains of the teams they coached. Cricket has super captains — increasingly judged by results, but equally classified by the manner in which they mould assorted individuals into a team or inspire a modest bunch to perform above themselves.

LIKE MOST THINGS IN CRICKET, the figures tell only a part of the story.

Yet, figures are important. A coach who loses consistently will soon be out of a job. It is convenient for a captain like Virat Kohli to state blandly that “When you have results come your way, the contribution is from every part of the team. Everyone works hard equally if not more than the other person (sic).”

So if players alone are responsible for victories (and, one presumes, defeats as well), why have a coach at all?

FOR DECADES international cricket survived without coaches. The guiding philosophy was articulated by Tiger Pataudi, who said, “If you are good enough to play for the country, then you are good enough to sort out your problems on the field.”

Within a couple of generations, the game had become more professional, the stakes, monetary and otherwise had grown, technology had begun to churn out enormous amounts of data, the inputs from an expanding support staff had increased, and it became difficult if not impossible for one man, the captain, to store everything in his head. Teamwork was needed both on and off the field.