Bouncer to Indian team manager candidates: How would you have solved Kohli vs Kumble?

Candidates applying for the post of the Indian team manager had a bouncer of a question bowled to them at their interviews – How would you have dealt with the Anil Kumble-Virat Kohli rift?

All the 12 candidates were asked to respond to this question as part of their job interviews in Mumbai and Delhi on Tuesday, according to a report by The Indian Express.

The logic was simple: Any manager coming into the picture as part of the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri regime should be able to handle these conflicts, before they made national headlines, as was the case when Anil Kumble resigned after the Champions Trophy last month. There were three team managers during Kumble’s tenure and none of them had reported the alleged rift to the higher-ups.

In fact, Virat Kohli has got an all-clear in then administrative manager Kapil Malhotra’s report on his differences with coach. In the wake of Kumble’s resignation, the BCCI had specifically instructed Malhotra to report any incident of discord between Kohli and Kumble when the team was in England. However, it was reported that Malhotra’s report did not mention any controversial incidents.

The answers of the new batch, according to the report, were divided between the captain having full autonomy and the if such an issue came up again, it being solved at the earliest.

What this question also confirms is that there was indeed a possibly unsolvable rift between Kohli and Kumble, something that all parties have been tight-lipped about as yet, with the exception of Kumble.

The BCCI hasn’t announced the full-time manager as yet. However, in their advertisement for the post, it was mentioned that “conflict resolution and negotiation skills are mandatory requisites of a candidate and should be able to demonstrate abilities/situations that have been successfully managed during their career”.

With such a brief, it is clear that everyone involved is keen to avoid a repeat of the ugly drama after Kumble’s resignation, even with the captain’s favoured candidate, Shastri, at the helm.