Vinod Rai, the head of the Supreme
Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) that ran Indian cricket for
almost three years since 2017, said former India captain Virat Kohli had issues
with the then-chief coach of India Anil Kumble because the latter was a strict
“disciplinarian”.

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Kohli and Kumble shared a cold relationship
during their tenures which led to the ouster of the latter as the head coach of
India despite the team’s good show in the West Indies and also in the Champions
Trophy in England.

 “In
my conversations with the captain and team management, it was conveyed that
Kumble was too much of a disciplinarian and hence the team members were not too
happy with him,” wrote Rai in his book, Not Just a Nightwatchman — My
Innings in the BCCI, reported The Indian Express.

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The former IAS officer, who also served as the
Comptroller and Auditor General of India from 7 January 2008 till 22 May 2013,
said that Kohli informed the CoA about young players being “intimated”
by Kumble, who was then India’s highest wicket-taker in Test cricket and has
most wickets in the ODIs now.

“I had spoken to Virat Kohli on the
issue and he did mention that the younger members of the team felt intimidated
by the way he worked with them,” Rai added.

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Kumble, who had replaced Duncan Fletcher as
India’s head coach in 2016, resigned from the position after the 2017 Champions
Trophy, in which India lost to Pakistan in the final. Rai wrote that the
legendary leg-spinner was “upset about the manner in which the entire
episode was handled.”

“We had long conversations with Kumble
after he had returned from the UK. He was obviously upset about the manner in
which the entire episode had panned out. He felt he had been unfairly treated
and a captain or team should not be given so much importance. It was the duty
of the coach to bring discipline and professionalism into the team and as a
senior, his views should have been respected by the players,” Rai wrote.

After Kumble’s resignation, Ravi Shastri
took over as the head coach and was in the position till the 2021 T20 World
Cup in the UAE.