For someone like Kumble who has toured extensively, even the away tours give him the perspective of someone who has witnessed foreign conditions from an Indian cricketer's viewpoint
Anil Kumble
Brisbane: Today is hopefully the start of a new era in Indian cricket — Anil Kumble's first day in the office as coach of Team India. Looking from afar, having long marvelled at India's cricket legacy, it was always a mystery as to why India were so reluctant to appoint an Indian cricket coach.
Anil Kumble
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For some reason, most of the Asian nations, despite having an alumni that is as impressive as anything that Australia, England, SA or NZ can offer, have shown a marked reluctance to embrace one of their own sons for the job of Head Coach. At any level, it seems odd that a foreign coach is preferred. Is it a hangover from some sort of colonial insecurity? With all the pedigree and experiences at hand, why is it that India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have refused to look within?
Bangladesh is another case; there is an argument that they haven't been in international cricket long enough but even for them, given language and cultural issues, surely a local coach will be able to communicate with the players on a deeper level than a Westerner whose words constantly require translation.
In India's case especially, when you consider the impressive alumni list of cricketers who have bestrode the world stage with pride, it is hard to believe that it has taken this long for the likes of Kumble to be appointed. Given that India will play most of its cricket at home, surely someone who understands local conditions intimately, even down to being able to speak in subtle tones to curators, has to be a huge advantage.
For someone like Kumble who has toured extensively, even the away tours give him the perspective of someone who has witnessed foreign conditions from an Indian cricketer's viewpoint. How will an Australian coach ever really understand the mindset of an Indian batsman who has to prepare for a baptism of fire at the WACA? Unless you've been in that dressing room and 'tasted' that atmosphere, even the failures and the lessons learned, it is very hard to prepare your charges to confront that situation from the perspective of an Indian batsman who is naturally unfamiliar with that unique situation.
His media performance after the acrimonious Sydney Test in 2008 was a masterful performance where he shed the submissive posture expected from Indian cricketers and displayed a steely nerve that empowered India to go on to record a famous victory in Perth.
Kumble also has that rare privilege of being highly respected throughout the cricketing world. Along with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid from that era (Sunil Gavaskar and perhaps Kapil Dev from the previous cohort), there is no Indian cricketer more respected and liked in the cricketing world. This includes the media.
On a tour of Australia, where a savage media pack are encouraged to destabilise touring teams much more than the English media (who are more likely to savage their own!), it nullifies some of that venom when a gentleman, and I use that word deliberately, is the man in the midst of the media scrum. He is a strong man, not one to be trifled with but despite that strength of character, he is essentially a very South Indian man — polite, respectful and possessed of a naturally gentle soul.
Michael Jeh is a Brisbane-based former first-class player
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