Anil Kumble’s stint with the Punjab Kings as the team head coach has ended, with the franchise having decided against renewing his contract for the 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League.
As per an ESPNcricinfo report, the decision was arrived at by the franchise following a board meeting comprising multiple owners, including Bollywood actor Preity Zinta, industrialists Mohit Burman, Ness Wadia and Karan Paul and Kings’ chief executive officer Satish Menon. The franchise is already on the hunt for a new coach, which will be announced soon.
Former Indian captain Kumble, having bagged 956 international wickets for India – 619 in Tests and 337 in ODIs between 1990 and 2008 – turned to commentary and coaching post his playing days. He had a year-long stint with the Indian team till the Champions Trophy 2017 in England, before which he had served as a mentor for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians.
Ahead of the IPL 2020, he became Punjab Kings fifth coach in as many editions, after Sanjay Bangar (2014-16), Virender Sehwag (2017), Brad Hodge (2018) and Mike Hesson (2019), had served in the role previously.
Fortunes didn’t change much for the 2014 finalists though, as they finished fifth in 2020 and 2021, and sixth in 2022, when the league expanded to 10 teams.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Kings had refuted the reports of Mayank Agarwal being sacked as captain, as had been reported earlier this week.
“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,”
PBKS stated in an official statement on Wednesday.
