Mahela Jayawardena denies reports linking him to India coach job
What’s the story?
Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardena has quashed reports of him being in line for the India coach job, expressing that he has no intentions of pursuing a full-time position in the near future.
The Sri Lankan was being linked to the proceedings probably because he had coached the Mumbai Indians to their third Indian Premier League (IPL) title and had worked alongside Sachin Tendulkar, who also happens to be a member of the Cricket Advisory Committee that has been tasked with the job of picking the new coach.
In a series of tweets, Jayawardena cleared the air about any kind of involvement in the coach selection process and distanced himself from the discussion in the picture.
Referring to his involvement with the Mumbai Indians and the Khulna Titans franchise of the Bangladesh Premier League, where he works in the same capacity, Jayawardena committed to his responsibilities with the aforementioned teams and said that his interests didn’t lie anywhere else.
In case you didn’t know...
Anil Kumble resigned from the position of the head coach of the Indian cricket team last Thursday thereby opening the doors for a fresh process of recruitment for one of the most lucrative jobs in the sport.
That the process was initiated even before Kumble’s contract expired – on June 20 – and that Kumble was given a direct entry into the list of applicants didn’t augur well for the former leg-spinner, who decided to not renew his contract and not re-apply for the job citing the ‘reservations’ that the captain, Virat Kohli, had with his style of coaching as the reason behind the move.
Details
Even since Kumble’s departure, speculations have been rife related to the probable candidates to fill the gap left behind by the 134-Test veteran. Names like Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus and Lalchand Rajput have been reported to have applied for the post.
However, the BCCI has decided to extend the deadline for the submission of applications to July 9 from the earlier advertised date of May 31, after the applications were first invited on May 25.
The BCCI has set the team’s tour to Sri Lanka in July-August as the deadline before which the new India coach needs to be picked.
Author’s take
Mahela Jayawardena’s call to not look beyond the realms of his current engagements, if interpreted just for the way it has been said, speaks of the unwillingness on a professional’s part to coach a national side.
However, the way the rift between Kohli and Kumble has been handled by the BCCI, and the fact that one of the most successful coaches to have been associated with the Indian team has been the one to walk away, definitely sends some signals to the professionals around the world.
Had the dressing room developments been kept restricted to its walls, in accordance with Kohli’s comments of preserving the ‘sanctity’ of the dressing room, the damage may not have been this large.
Now that what happened has happened, stories are bound to be created and set afloat related to how the captain led to the coach’s ouster, and those stories would paint Kohli and Kumble in red and white.