Anil Kumble resigned as India’s coach ahead of the team’s tour of West Indies. (Source: AP)
Anil Kumble’s association as coach of the Indian cricket team has been brought to an acrimonious end – if you count the final payments to him as any consideration. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released two amounts of Rs. 48.75 lakhs as “Professional fees for the month of May 2017” and “Professional fees for the month of June 2017” August 7.
BCCI made the payments official and revealed the information as part of the board’s monthly exercise of publishing payments made above Rs 25 lakh.
Former India spinner and captain Kumble had controversially quit two days after the Champions Trophy final loss against Pakistan in London in June, calling his partnership with captain Virat Kohli “untenable”. There had been rumours doing the rounds prior to the official decision that the captain and coach weren’t on the same page as far as team selection was concerned or the team’s bonhomie inside the dressing room.
Ravi Shastri, whom Kumble had replaced, was reappointed as the coach following a lengthy, and somewhat controversial, selection process for the new coach. He has been appointed as the coach until the 2019 World Cup. Shastri beat the likes of Virender Sehwag and Tom Moody for the high-profile job.
Ishant Sharma, who is not part of the current Test squad touring Sri Lanka, was paid Rs. 1.03 crore by the BCCI under two separate sub-heads: Rs 26,60,968 as “Taxable portion of ICC & BCCI Test Ranking prize money” and Rs 76,59,766 as “Share of gross revenue 2015-16 Tournament played in outside India”. Funds were paid out to KL Rahul and Stuart Binny too under the “Taxable portion of ICC & BCCI Test Ranking prize money” head. While funds were released under the other head for Varun Aaron, Wriddhiman Saha and Binny.
The board paid Rs 45 lakh to each of the India women’s cricket team members following their final place finish at the ICC Women’s World Cup.
One time benefit payment of Rs 35 lakh each was released to former India cricketers including Vivek Razdan, Sarandeep Singh, Salil Ankola, Reetinder Sodhi, Yograj Singh and Robin Singh.
(With PTI inputs)
