Latest Cricket News: "There was no difference between Virat and Anil Kumble," says former BCCI Head of CoA

The former Head of BCCI Committee of Administrators (CoA), Vinod Rai, clears the air on the infamous story between former India captain Virat Kohli and former India Head Coach Anil Kumble. The media reports in 2017 always showed that the then captain Kohli and then Head Coach Kumble had differences but Vinod Rai has made it clear that nothing of that sort was brought to his notice.

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"This is not correct to say that there were differences between Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble. There were no differences between them. I have only written that when the time came to renew Anil Kumble's contract. We consulted the team and then Virat said that the junior members of the team feel intimidated by Anil Kumble because of his discipline. There was nothing like the difference between Kumble and Kohli. Neither I had any such information nor I have written"

Former BCCI CoA Head Vinod Rai said while speaking exclusively to ANI

Vinod Rai also clarified that the decision of selecting a coach was not his responsibility

Vinod Rai also clarified that the decision of selecting a coach was not his responsibility. It was the job of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC).

"The board did try to convince Virat Kohli but the selection of coach is done by Cricket's Advisory Committee (CAC). The CAC comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman only selected Anil Kumble as coach earlier. I wrote this thing in the book when CAC was selecting the coach that you people should speak to the team. The coach because we were outsiders. If senior players like Sachin, Sourav, and VVS speak to the players then the impact is different and if we speak, then it will not be that effective. So, these three spoke to the captain and the coach."

Vinod Rai explained to ANI

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Supreme Court of India appointed former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai to a four-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) in 2017.

The former Comptroller and Auditor General spoke highly about Anil Kumble the coach and called him a dignified man

"This is totally wrong and you are saying that sources say these things. My book is not based on any source. It is based on my personal knowledge. So, this is totally false. In fact, CAC reselected Anil Kumble to appoint him as a coach. I have written in the book that Kumble is more, dignified and professional. So, he said that even if I would have been recommended by the second time and if in the team, there are a few differences then I will only step aside," said Vinod Rai.

Indian cricket was going through a tough time after the IPL turmoil. In such a situation, the Supreme Court of the country had given the responsibility of handling the responsibility of BCCI to former CAG Vinod Rai.

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"We never faced any sort of difficulty we only had one agenda that the game of cricket should go on. The mandate which was given by Supreme Court to convince state association and BCCI to adopt the new constitution." told Vinod Rai.

"I have shared my personal experience in this book during my tenure": Vinod Rai

"I have shared my personal experience in this book during my tenure. After that, there is only one thing I have written in this book that BCCI President is a former India captain and a legend, and a present captain. If you remember that time that team's mentor was MS Dhoni. So, whenever you change a team's captain then management, coach, mentor, and Board President speak among themselves then the transition would have been smooth it has happened twice and if you remember when MS Dhoni handed over the captaincy then he consulted the Board President and when he handed over then both Virat and Dhoni were playing.

So, the good thing was one senior player was a former captain and he was guiding the new captain. Dhoni has repeated the same thing in CSK. He handed over the captaincy while he was still playing and that is what should have happened, " said Vinod Rai.

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One of the best things CoA managed to do was to convince Rahul Dravid to join the National Cricket Academy. He joined as the head of cricketing activities. Dravid at that time was busy grooming the India Under-19 cricket team.

"Selecting Rahul Dravid was not a setback but a great thing for us. We tried to select Rahul Dravid for the post of the coach but at that time he was coaching the Under-19 team and he did not want to change. So, he refused that time but two years later when we approached him that NCA's post is in Bengaluru only you don't have to travel outside then he agreed to it, and see after three and four years the team has selected Rahul Dravid as a coach, " said Vinod Rai.

Vinod Rai is a happy and content man after running the BCCI for 33 months.

"There is nothing as such all the decisions of Supreme Court that we were supposed to take we took it and then only we handed over the charge, " said Vinod Rai to ANI.