Sunil Gavaskar unhappy with departure of Anil Kumble as India coach

Sunil Gavaskar has expressed his dismay at the news that Anil Kumble has stood down as head coach of India's national team.

The 46-year-old former spinner left his role on Tuesday after one year in the post, amid reports of tension between him and a number of players, including captain Virat Kohli.

Kumble had built a reputation of being a hard taskmaster, with Sunday's heavy defeat by Pakistan in the final of the Champions Trophy creating even greater rifts within the squad.

Gavaskar, a former Indian captain, told local broadcasters NDTV: "What Anil Kumble has achieved for India as a player and what he has achieved for India over the last one year, has been nothing short of phenomenal.

"So I would rather not have Anil Kumble being maligned or being bad-mouthed as a hard taskmaster or his headmasterly approach for what I have been reading in the papers.

"But what this is sending a signal for the next coach is either bow down to what the players want you to do, otherwise you, like one of India's cricket legends Anil Kumble, you will have to step down and that is a sad, sad, sad message.

"So you want softies. You want somebody to just tell you, 'ok boys, don't practice today because you guys are not feeling well, ok take a holiday, go shopping'. You want that kind of a person!

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"If somebody is a hard taskmaster and he has got you results like Anil. If any of the players are complaining, I feel those players are the ones who should be left out of the team.

"It is a sad day because he has been one of the greatest cricketers that India has produced and for him to not want to do the job for whatever reason, and perhaps he might come up with the reasons over the next couple of days, but that is really sad for Indian cricket."

And Gavaskar stressed that there will always be issues between players and coaches, adding: "There will always be differences in a group of more than two or three people.

"That's bound to happen when you are in a tense situation. India has won everything since the time Anil took over.

"I can't see Kumble doing much wrong in one year and the only reason this kind of a day has come is clearly because there has to be something which didn't quite gel in that group."