Anil Kumble quits National Cricket Academy
Anil Kumble, the former India captain, has resigned as chairman of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) over what he says was a lack of "alignment" between his vision for the NCA and the rest of the committee's.
Anil Kumble, the former India captain, has resigned as chairman of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) over what he says was a lack of "alignment" between his vision for the NCA and the rest of the committee's.
An official statement from the BCCI for the reasons for Kumble's decision is awaited. He is tipped to be replaced, at least on an interim basis, by MP Pandove, the chairman of the BCCI's specialised academies committee and a member of the IPL governing council.
"I had a three-year vision, a holistic approach for the NCA that was not in alignment with that of the rest of the committee," Kumble told ESPNcricinfo. "It didn't make sense to me to just be a figurehead in this kind of a situation. So I thought it was better that somebody else take over."
The other members of the NCA Board are Ranjib Biswal (vice-chairman), Anirudh Chaudhry, TC Mathew, Rakesh Parikh and Gyanendra Pandey.
Kumble is president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and chief mentor of the Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL team. The post of chairman of the NCA board, an honorary job, was Kumble's first official BCCI position since being elected KSCA president last year. It is an honorary post. He denied that his decision to quit a day after the NCA meeting was due to arguments in the BCCI working committee's meeting over apparent conflict of interest issues concerning him. Board rules require that any resignation must be tabled before a working committee.
Two months ago, controversy arose over Kumble's co-ownership of a talent management firm called Tenvic that has on its books several young players including R Vinay Kumar and S Aravind, both of whom have been part of recent India squads and also play for the Royal Challengers. Tenvic - named after Kumble's ten-wicket haul against Pakistan in 1999 - looks after the commercial interests of the players but Kumble has consistently denied any conflict of interest between his administrative and mentoring roles.
He said at the time that "less than 2%" of Tenvic's business was related to "mentoring cricketers", and that too without any commercial benefit.