According to Shirke, Kohli was not happy with the selection and then BCCI chief Anurag Thakur had persuaded him to accept the cricketing committee's decision.
Former BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke talked about the Virat Kohli-Anil Kumble rift on Thursday and said that the friction between the skipper and the head coach was there from the very beginning.
According to a report in The Indian Express, Shirke said that Kohli was opposed to Anil Kumble's appointment as head coach of Team India and was later persuaded by BCCI to accept the decision made by the cricket committee comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman among others.
"There had been some murmurs about this (the rift) even at the time of Mr Kumble’s appointment. At that time, our president (Anurag Thakur) had taken the initiative and had a detailed discussion with both parties, and it was decided that since the cricket committee had recommended Mr Kumble as the best option, we should go ahead with that. Therefore, I think the real reason for a one-year contract was that we would work and evolve, and see how this went, so as to keep the options open at a future date," Shirke was quoted as saying by the daily.
Kumble was chosen over Ravi Shastri despite not meeting the criteria's specified by BCCI about the coaching experience at the international level. The former Indian leg-spinner was included on the insistence of the cricket committee.
Shirke told the daily that Kumble had expressed his desire to coach the team and his passion towards cricket and winning. He has had a successful tenure as under him, team India claimed the ICC Test ranking top spot.
Reports have been surfacing about Kohli's alleged spat with Kumble regarding differences of opinion on selection matters.
BCCI joint secretary Amitabh Chaudhary on the other hand, on Thursday, claimed that he is unaware of any rift between chief coach Anil Kumble and captain Virat Kohli, dismissing it as "purely speculative".
"I am not aware of any. It's purely in the realm (sic figment) of imagination. These are purely speculative,"
Chaudhary told reporters on the sidelines of India's practice session.
When quizzed further that there can't be smoke without fire, the former Jharkhand top cop replied: "I see no smoke at all."
The race to get the chief coaching job saw new development when the names of those in the competition were out. Anil Kumble is an automatic entry to the process. Virender Sehwag, former fast bowler Dodda Ganesh and former India A coach Lalchand Rajput are the other Indians in the competition. Besides these, Australian Tom Moody and Englishman Richard Pybus too have thrown their hats in the ring.
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