Summary India's newly appointed coach Anil Kumble is keen to keep a low-profile in the job.
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India s newly appointed coach Anil Kumble is keen to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors, John Wright and Gary Kirsten, and keep a low-profile in the job, he said on Friday.
The 45-year-old spin great, who played a lot of his cricket under New Zealand s Wright and South Africa s Kirsten, said he wants to emulate the duo s coaching style during his one-year term.
Wright was India s head coach from 2000 to 2005, and held a similar position at his Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians in 2013-14, when Kumble served as the team s mentor.
"I played a lot under John Wright, he s been a great influence on how I ll go about (the role), in terms of being in the background," Kumble told the Board of Control for Cricket in India s (BCCI) website.
"When I became a mentor for (the) Mumbai Indians, I brought John in because he understood a lot about Indian culture and then the way coaches work. So I ll pick his brain," said Kumble, who was appointed to the high-profile post on Thursday.
Kumble also enjoyed a good rapport with Kirsten (2008-11) during the leg-spinner s last year of international cricket.
He played his final Test in November 2008.
"I was involved with Gary Kirsten only for the Test matches, a very short period. He was, again, someone who worked in the background and didn t make himself visible," said Kumble.
"Exactly how I d like to work as well. Not in the front, but behind the scenes."
Kumble is the first Indian to be appointed as the full-time coach of the national team since Kapil Dev (1999-2000), who served as coach-cum-manager 16 years ago.
Since Dev s tenure, India have had Wright, Greg Chappell (2005-07), Kirsten and Duncan Fletcher (2011-15) as coaches, bringing contrasting fortunes for the side during their respective tenures.
Former skipper Ravi Shastri, who was also in the frame for the coach s post, had assumed coaching duties from 2014 until the recent World Twenty20 as team director.
Chappell s term was undoubtedly controversial, with the Australian charged of causing a rift within the Indian dressing room which apparently led to Sourav Ganguly s ouster from the team.
Kumble, known for his work ethic and never-say-die attitude, stressed that a coach should be an "enabler" who takes "the burden off the captain".
"You re trying to build personalities, trying to build leaders. That s how I d like to look at this team," said Kumble, who remains India s highest wicket-taker with 619 scalps in 132 Tests.
Kumble, who was chosen for the high-profile job from a list of 57 applicants received by the BCCI, will join the team ahead of a gruelling season which begins with the West Indies tour in July.
