The manner in which Anil Kumble's exit took place was unfair: Rahul Dravid

In the month of June, just ahead of the tour to West Indies, former Indian skipper Anil Kumble stepped down from the role of the head coach of the Indian national cricket team. He termed his relation with skipper Virat Kohli as ‘untenable’, and a lot of questions went unanswered. Many suggested that Kohli played a major role in getting Kumble off the set-up, while certain section blamed Kumble’s ‘strictness’ as the main reason.

Current Indian U-19 and India A teams’ coach Rahul Dravid has criticized the way Kumble’s exit panned out. At the Bangalore Literature Festival, Dravid was asked whether there is a superstar culture in the Indian dressing room and if the players take the final call on the coach’s fate.

“What’s the answer? At the end of the day, I don’t know the specifics of that particular issue, but it shouldn’t have got played out in the way that it did,” said Dravid. “I think the whole thing got played out in the media which is very, very unfortunate for Anil and not fair on him at all. So, what’s the reality of it and what happens behind closed doors is not something I’m preview to, so I can’t comment directly. But it was definitely an unfortunate episode, especially to someone like Anil who has been an absolute legend of the game, someone who has done more to win Test matches for India than anybody I know. And he had a successful year as coach as well. But the fact is that it should never have played out they way that it did, publicly. ”

Feud between captain-coach and go only in one way: Dravid

Dravid also added that if there is a feud between a captain and a coach then it can go only one way. “See, coaches get sacked, the first thing you know when you stop playing and become a coach is that someday you are going to get sacked. That’s the reality. As an India A and Under-19 coach, I know that someday I’m going to get the boot,” said Dravid. “Some football managers get sacked after two games, so that’s the reality. Players are more powerful than coaches, we know that because we were more powerful than coaches when we played.”