Punjab Kings part ways with head coach Anil Kumble - reports

As per reports, Punjab Kings have sacked Anil Kumble as the team’s head coach.

By CX Staff Writer Updated: Aug 25, 2022, 19:40 IST

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Kumble was in charge of the team in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

As per an ESPNcricinfo report, Anil Kumble’s stint as the Punjab Kings head coach at the IPL has ended, with the franchise having decided against renewing his contract. Kumble served as the team head coach in the last three editions - in 2020, 2021 and 2022 - and the team finished fifth in the first two, and sixth in this year’s edition which featured 10 teams.

It has been learnt that the decision has been arrived at after discussions among the concerned franchise authorities comprising multiple owners, including Bollywood actor Preity Zinta, industrialists Mohit Burman, Ness Wadia and Karan Paul and Kings' chief executive officer Satish Menon.

Kumble was the fifth head coach hired by the Punjab Kings in as many seasons at the time of his appointment in 2020, succeeding Sanjay Bangar (2014-16), Virender Sehwag (2017), Brad Hodge (2018) and Mike Hesson (2019) respectively in the role. During his time with the PBKS, the 2014 finalists won 19 and lost 23 of the 42 games played across the last three editions.

Kumble, who had coached India from June 2016 till the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 in England, had earlier served as mentor for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians. One of game's greatest bowlers, having bagged 956 international wickets - 619 in Tests and 337 in ODIs - Kumble still sits third among the all-time wicket-takers list across formats, having represented India between 1990 and 2008. He represented the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first three editions of the IPL, and bagged 45 wickets while maintaining an excellent economy of 6.58, and led the team to the finals of the 2009 edition in South Africa.

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Meanwhile, the Punjab Kings had refuted the reports of Mayank Agarwal being sacked as captain, after several media houses had reported so 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.