In the cricket world, the coach of the team has a very important role, they are the real guardian of the players. He has a big responsibility for bringing the best out of every player. He is the one, who takes care of every individual in the team. So, we can easily guess how coaches play a big responsibility in the performance of the whole team on the field as well as off the field.
Usually, it has been seen that players come into the limelight because of their on or off the field controversy. If that happens, the coach of the team has to come forward to support their players and let them know the right thing. But, the chances of a coach come into a controversy are very narrow as they always remain active in the dressing room and plan for future games.
But, there is a list of coaches, who came to light through controversy. So, here we are going to tell about the top five coaches, who turned out to be controversial during their stint.
1. Greg Chappell
In the history of cricket, the former Indian coach Greg Chappell is considered as one of the most controversial coaches. In the year 2005, then the skipper of team India Sourav Ganguly was super impressed with the knowledge of Chappel and according to his recommendations, Greg Chappell was appointed as the head coach of the Indian team.
The first task of Greg Chappell as a coach of the team was to go for a Sri Lanka tour. In that tour, Sourav Ganguly was not included since he was suspended because of a slow-over rate for 6 matches by ICC. So, Rahul Dravid took the responsibility of the captain. After that Sri Lanka tour, team India was scheduled to go for the Zimbabwe tour. And Sourav Ganguly was back in the team. On that Zimbabwe tour, a couple of instances turned the Greg Chappell into a villain.
Greg Chappell told Sourav Ganguly to leave the captaincy role. He said that the team India should play their matches with their best players although at the cost of Ganguly. After that, Sourav Ganguly openly admitted in front of the media that he was being forced to step down from the captaincy through the management.
The controversy got air when Greg Chappell’s mail to BCCI got leaked in which Chappell clearly mentioned that Sourav Ganguly was physically and mentally unfit to lead the squad. After that also, many controversial incidents happened in which Greg Chappell was involved and finally, in 2007, he resigned from the mentorship of team India.
2. Anil Kumble
The legendary spinner of team India Anil Kumble always ruled in international cricket due to his brilliant spin bowling. He always grasped the limelight because of his on-field tremendous playing. But his mentorship career concluded on a controversial note.
In the year 2016, Anil Kumble was appointed as the coach of the Indian team. Under his mentorship, India won 12 test matches out of 17 and lost only one game. But just after a year, in 2017, he resigned from coach shockingly. Later on, Anil Kumble said that the BCCI informed regarding the fact that the captain of the team had reservations with his method of coaching and about him continuing as the head coach.
He was very much angry over the Virat Kohli’s behavior because of which he has given a statement that “ Due to these reservations, I think it is best to hand over the responsibility of the coach to whomever the BCCI and CAC deem fit.” And the tenure of Anil Kumble as the head coach had come to an end.
3. Mickey Arthur
The former coach of team Australia, Mickey Arthur was also catch up headlines because of his ‘Homework Gate’ controversy. In the year 2013, team Australia went on a tour to India to play Test series. The team didn’t get a good start to that series and lost the first two matches. They faced difficulty to face the Indian spinners who already took 34 wickets out of 40 in two matches.
After the 2nd test match, Mickey Arthur gave a task to all the players in the team to come up with some innovative ideas to improve their performances. But four players including James Pattinson, Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson, and Usman Khawaja failed to do that task. Later on, the four players abandoned from the next Test match, which was scheduled to play in Mohali.
This step taken by Mickey Arthur backfired him and became one of the biggest controversies in the history of Australia cricket. Soon, Arthur was dismissed from the post of the coach by the Cricket Australia for applying such kind of methods on the squad.
4. Bob Woolmer
In the year 2004, Late Bob Woolmer was the head coach of Team Pakistan. With his guidance, Pakistan was doing tremendously well in Tests as well as ODIs. He used to support all the players in the team and never had a fight with any player in the squad.
Everything was going fine before he was found dead in his hotel room in the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on 18th March 2007. His secret death gave a shock to the cricketing world. All it happened after three days the team Pakistan got dismissed from World Cup 2007 hosted by West Indies.
According to the report, it was a normal death because of a mild heart attack. But after that, the policed involved an investigation to check that Bob Woolmer died of heart-attack or it was a plan. In the end, the case proved as a normal death.
5. Stuart Law
Stuart Law, the former coach of West Indies was a very angry coach because of which he turned out to be a controversy in the year 2018 when West Indies and India were involved in a Test match. On day 3 of the test match, Kieran Powell was caught by Ajinkya Rahane at the ball off Ravichandran Ashwin.
The umpire on the field gave it out but still, everyone was waiting for the decision of the third umpire. In the end, the third (TV) umpire also gave him out and the whole West Indies team was dismissed in 127 runs. According to the ICC statement, Stuart Law went to the room of the third umpire after the incident and told something unacceptable.
After that, he was found guilty for breaking the code of conduct & law and was suspended for two ODIs by ICC. Also, he fined with his full match fee for his behavior as a coach of a national team.