Legendary Indian spinner Anil Kumble’s stint as head coach at Punjab Kings (PBKS) has come to an end after the IPL franchise decided not to renew his contract. According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, the decision to discontinue Kumble as head coach was taken by a board comprising multiple owners, including Bollywood actress Preity Zinta, industrialists Mohit Burman, Ness Wadia and Karan Paul and the team’s chief executive officer Satish Menon.
Notably, Kumble joined the Mohali-based franchise in 2020. Under his mentorship, the Kings finished in the lower half of the IPL points table: sixth in 2020 and 2021, when the tournament comprised of eight teams, and sixth in 2022, when the cash-rich league was expanded to a ten-team tournament.
It is not the first time Kings have parted ways with the head coach. Before Kumble, PBKS had appointed five coaches in the form of Sanjay Bangar (2014-16), Virender Sehwag (2017), Brad Hodge (2018) and Mike Hesson (2019).
No wonder the continuous chopping and changing of the leadership have affected the franchise quite adversely. The Kings have made it to the playoffs only twice, with just a sole final appearance in 2014 when they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Kumble had earlier served as the mentor for Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) before taking over the coaching responsibilities of the Indian men’s national side in 2016.
Not so long ago, there were rumours about the sacking of Mayank Agarwal as the captain of PBKS, but the officials have denied any such claims. PBKS posted a statement on social media stating the reports regarding Agarwal’s sacking as PBKS skipper are untrue.
“News reports published by a certain sports News website pertaining to the captaincy of the Punjab Kings franchise has been making the rounds in the last few days. We would like to state that no official of the team has issued any statement on the same,” Punjab Kings had tweeted.
News reports published by a certain sports News website pertaining to captaincy of the Punjab Kings franchise has been making the rounds in the last few days. We would like to state that no official of the team has issued any statement on the same.
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) August 24, 2022
