Shastri resigns from ICC post

Ravi Shastri, former Indian men’s cricket captain and team director, tendered his resignation on 1 July from his post as media representative in ICC’s prestigious Cricket Committee.

Putting to rest the perception of a Kumble vs Ravi Shastri battle for the race to the coaching job, Kumble said it’s eventually the team that has to perform.

Otherwise, how come out of the 57 names who applied for the post – including present chief selector Sandeep Patil or former India players like Pravin Amre or Lalchand Rajput – the BCCI out of the blue chose to include Kumble’s name?

“It is a great opportunity for youngsters to talk to him about cricket and learn from him and improve their game”. Kumble’s first assignment as India coach would be a four-Test series in West Indies.

With a number of reserve bowlers such as Varun Aaron, Sreenath Arvind, Vinay Kumar, Jayant Yadav and Shabaz Nadeem also being called up for the camp, Kumble’s guidance has been on offer to a mix of players even outside the squad to West Indies.

Speaking of time again, it’s finally redemption moment for Vijay in West Indies.

Anil Kumble, who was appointed as the coach of Indian cricket team, is the chairman of ICC’s cricket committee. He did a wonderful job with the Indian team.

It’s early days yet with practice games to come in the West Indies but the first glimpse of the team’s batting order under the new set up was Rahane at 3 and Pujara at 5 followed by Rohit Sharma.

“Actually, last time, it wasn’t good…” I understand that communications during such times is critical for a coach to pick up the phone and say “dont worry”. That is a consideration I am thinking of. I have a fair bit of idea how it is going to be there. So, we gotta be prepared overall as a unit because this is the start of our season. We don’t know what is going to be given on a particular Test though.

“We will like to use the next two-three weeks before the first Test well”.

The clock ticked to 10.45 am, and Kumble unzipped his winter jacket. It landed wide. He then tried it a couple of more times, but he understandably wasn’t familiar enough with it. That’s when he took the matter (ball) into his own hands. But the former India captain didn’t see it as an issue and even cited the example of Darren Lehmann, who is also part of the panel, apart from being the coach of Australia.

Virat Kohli coped with throw-downs from batting coach Sanjay Bangar, before easing into drives against the spinners. The run that he had with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League kept him on his toes and it was always the work, play in his case, that kept him going. Hence, he would like to get the monkey off his back and hit a century against West Indies on the upcoming tour.