Kirsten finds Arthur backing over Kumble issue

NEW DELHI: BCCI might be unhappy with India coach Gary Kirsten for commenting on the captaincy issue but the former South Africa opener has found backing from country-mate Micky Arthur, who blamed the Indian media for the furore.
    
The South Africa coach feels Kirsten did nothing wrong when he said that India's ODI skipper M S Dhoni was ready to take charge of the Test team.
    
"Kumble is 38, for goodness sake. He has back-to-back series against Australia and Pakistan coming up. How long do people expect him to carry on?
    
"All Gary was doing was attempting to re-assure Indians that Dhoni was qualified and ready to take over. And yet the media managed to twist his words into an attack on Kumble," Arthur wrote in his coloumn on 'cricketnirvana.com'.
    
Arthur also felt that this could fuel tension between the captain and coach.
    
"The relationship between captain and coach is critical to the success of any international team and I have personal experience of how much respect there is between Gary and Anil."
    
With the four-match Test series against Australia coming up, the South Africa coach hoped the captaincy issue won't affect India's performance.
    
"Hopefully it won't detract, in any way, from Team India's performance against Australia. It is a series I will be watching extremely closely as we take on Australia in December.
    
"Good Luck India. And if Anil does retire afterwards, along with, perhaps, one or two other senior players, then I hope they have good reason to celebrate."