Unseemly row hits Team India

Team India could have gone into the defence of its Champions Trophy title without having to handle the PR disaster of explaining a spat between the skipper and coach. There may be differences between Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble on how to run the cricket team to sustain the results achieved in all three formats of the game, but it was a perfidious stroke of ill-timing that the coach’s position was advertised just as the team landed in England. The BCCI may be in the middle of its worst management crisis, and being helped to recover by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators, but it was crass to start the appointment process publicly while the team is in the midst of its campaign in the 18-day event. Where was the need for such haste?

Differences may exist between the captain and coach. These may even be irreconcilable, which means the hunt for a new coach must begin sometime. So shoddily has this been handled by BCCI officials, who are always seeking ways to put the court’s intervention in its affairs in poor light by creating such crises, that Team India will have to bear the extra burden. Throughout the ongoing BCCI reorganisation crisis, Team India has consistently shown it’s capable of performing at optimum levels, not distracted by the BCCI goings-on. In this case, it’s the team’s inner working that is being exposed, and its effect will be known only in the string of performances to come in the league stage, including a key clash against Pakistan on Sunday.