Balwinder Singh Sandhu believes Anil Kumble lacked a key attribute as coach

Anil Kumble has stepped down from the position of the head coach of the Indian Cricket Team a couple of days after India lost the Champions Trophy final to Pakistan and four days prior to the team playing their first match in the limited over series in the Caribbean.

Many former cricketers reacted to his resignation and seemed to be unhappy with how things ended. However, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Indian fast bowler, who was also the part Indian winning team in 1983 said, Anil Kumble may have failed in man manager in his stint as head coach of Indian Cricket team.

He believes that the pivotal role of a coach at this stratum is more about man management and less about the strategies and tactics which Singh believes Kumble lacked.

“You can take it that way. Most of the players have been developed at the National Cricket Academy and by the state coaches. They become India players after going through the NCA and playing Ranji Trophy. So all the hard work has been done by them (state coaches),” he was quoted as saying by Indian Express.

Kumble has had a remarkable one-year stint with the Indian team and has placed Indian cricket to touch higher echelon but Balwinder Singh Sandhu believes that any coach in this era would have the same record as of Anil Kumble. He said, “any coach would have been successful.”

Sandhu kept his focus on the word ‘man management’ and further stated that the criteria to judge a man’s capability should not be confined to the grounds of his skills in making strategies.

“The players are developed in the state academies and, unless there have been any marked improvements since they joined the national team under him, Anil Kumble should be judged only through the strata of his man management skills,” he added.

Kumble’s Era

Under Kumble’s era, Team India had a winning percentage of over 70 in Test and won 12 out of 17 matches. His coaching was also successful in the shorter formats where the win percentage was 61.54 and the team lost only five out of 13 matches they played in the last one year.