Kohli-Kumble rift takes another twist: Will the coach even travel with India team for West Indies tour?

Virat Kohli has made it clear he and the majority of the players do not want Anil Kumble to continue as the head coach of the India cricket team. With that position made quite clear, is there any chance of Kumble continuing on and will the legendary leg-spinner even be a part of the side when they fly off to the Caribbean for a limited-overs series against the West Indies?

So many questions, and so many of them so unnecessary.

At the end of the day, this West Indies tour is not the be all and end all for India, it is just a money spinner and a way to get the West Indies Cricket Board onside with the BCCI as more politics behind the scenes rumbles on with the ICC.

So, with all the controversy surrounding the India coach position and the reported rift between Kohli and Kumble, should the BCCI, or the COA, even send a head coach to the West Indies?

Clearly, the head coach will not make or break this five-match ODI and one-off T20 series against the West Indies, so even if Kumble doesn't travel to the Caribbean, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Kohli speaks, but will CAC listen?

Kohli reportedly spoke to the Cricket Advisory Committee and made his feelings over the matter clear, with the captain insisting he does not want Kumble to continue as the head coach of India.

The CAC, which consists of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, also spoke to their contemporary Kumble over the matter, and while a decision over the new coach is not expected, the feeling is, for now at least, the status quo will be maintained, which means Kumble continuing as the head coach until the end of the West Indies series.

That was the plan for the COA as well, with the head of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administration Vinod Rai saying "Kumble will remain coach for the West Indies tour."

The caveat that followed that statement was as long as Kumble himself wants to.

Kumble's decision too

Now the question is does Kumble even want to be with the India team anymore? Is it worth all the grief and negative headlines that keep pouring in?

Kumble is not just another player and the word "legend" isn't just thrown about when you mention the leg-spinner. Kumble is arguably India's greatest ever match-winner and undoubtedly the greatest bowler this country has ever seen.

So, he is a legend in every regard, and to see one of India's greatest ever players being put through the mud like this, isn't a great thing.

Yes, Kumble's decision to go with "discipline, discipline, discipline," might not have been the greatest of ideas. At the end of the day, a senior professional team cannot be run like a school and his "head masterly" treatment was bound to be met with resistance.

And what Kumble, probably, didn't realise enough is that in cricket, the captain is the boss, and rightly so – strange that when he himself has been India's captain. The skipper is the one who makes all the key decisions and so deserves to be the one to be the ultimate team leader.

But does that mean the captain also has the luxury of picking and choosing his coach? That is the tricky part. Because if the captain is given that power as well, then it could snowball into a catastrophic situation, where every time a captain has any sort of problem with anyone, he just flicks his fingers and vanishes him into thin air.

What the CAC, the BCCI and COA need to weigh is just how deep the problem is, if the Kohli-Kumble rift beyond repair and if the vast majority of the players feel the same way as their captain.

If the answer is yes to that, then the only solution looks like being selecting a new head coach, be that Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody or someone else.

Thankfully for India, the West Indies series isn't an important one, so it does give the CAC time to make their decision, whether, for now, Kumble travels with the squad or not.