Former Head of BCCI Committee of Administrators (CoA), Vinod Rai, on Friday rubbished reports of the differences between ex India captain Virat Kohli and head coach Anil Kumble. 

In 2017, media reports showed that a fallout between Kohli and Kumble costed the latter his job as head coach. 

Former BCCI administrator Ratnakar Shetty earlier this year said that Kohli was unhappy with Kumble for ‘not standing up for players’. However, Rai, who revealed some details about the latter’s coaching stint in his book titled ‘Not Just A Nightwatchman: My Innings with BCCI’, said that there were no differences. 

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Vinod Rai was appointed the interim president of the BCCI in 2017. His tenure lasted for 33 months. 

“This is not correct to say that there were differences between Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble. There were no differences between them,” Rai told ANI. 

Kumble was handed a one-year contract in 2016. He resigned after India’s Champions Trophy final loss the following year. Rai in his book had said that the 51-year-old former leg-spinner was unhappy with the treatment he received. 

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However, talking to ANI, the former BCCI official added that the Virat Kohli felt ‘the junior members of the team feel intimidated by Anil Kumble’. 

“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, ” Rai added. 

‘Kohli said youngsters afraid of disciplinarian Kumble’: Vinod Rai on former coach’s ouster

He then revealed that the board, members of the Cricket’s Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, still tried to convince Kohli. 

Rai, however, maintained that ‘the Kumble-Kohli issue had absolutely no issues’.