When asked about his opinion on the repeated backlash Head Coach Gautam Gambhir has been facing from the Indian crowd, the BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia reacted sarcastically, mocking the Indian crowd as cricket experts. He went on to assert that the BCCI has a cricket committee designated to make such decisions.
India have just not had the success they would have desired in the longest format of the game and the 50-over format. India went on to become the best Test side in the World under Virat Kohli’s leadership, and since then, coaches Ravi Shastri and later Rahul Dravid have helped India maintain that legacy in the red-ball format.
However, ever since Gautam Gambhir was appointed the Head coach of the Indian national team, he has not handed the Men in Blue the desired results in any of the longer formats. Under Gambhir, India have also faced failure in the 50-over format of limited-overs cricket.
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Indian fans have pounced on Gautam Gambhir for recent struggles in Tests and ODIs
Indian fans have been infuriated over the BCCI for helping Gautam Gambhir to keep his position as the national head coach across all three formats of the game. To show their disapproval of Gautam Gambhir, the fans have hooted at him.
Two of the recent and most shameful incidents included the hooting at Guwahati, where they hurled abuses at the Indian head coach after a 2-0 whitewash against South Africa. The second incident occurred recently after India lost the ODI series to NZ in Indore.
Gautam Gambhir has often been pricked for his strange and seemingly biased team selections. Gambhir prefers Gill to be a part of every format, even if he is not showing promising form. He has made Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy all-format cricketers, while the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devdutt Padikkal and Sarfaraz Khan have constantly been ignored.
Under Gambhir, India won the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy but have lost several ODI series, which included his first ever as a coach against Sri Lanka, then against Australia and now against New Zealand for the first time at home. Hence, Gautam Gambhir cannot be called a white-ball coaching master but only a master of the T20I format.
BCCI Secretary mocks Indian fans, backs Gautam Gambhir with the BCCI committee
In a recent interview with Sportstar, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia made some stunning revelations on BCCI’s plans with Gautam Gambhir and made some interesting remarks on Indian cricket.
When the interviewer questioned the BCCI Secretary about the several speculations building around BCCI’s agenda behind Gautam Gambhir’s retention in the role of head coach, Saikia answered:
“India is a country of 140 crore people, and everybody is a cricket expert. Everybody will have an opinion. It is a democratic country, and we cannot gag anybody. All the opinion makers are free to give their opinions, including the media,” Devajit Saikia’s remark’s seemed sarcastic towards the Indian fans.
“There is a lot of speculated news in the domain, and also various ex-cricketers, cricketers, or other people are also giving opinions. In social media, it is full of them. But the thing is that we have a cricket committee in the BCCI, who are ex-cricketers. They are dedicated and make all the decisions,” he continued.
The secretary also pointed out that they have five selectors for team selections, and people get into the position after qualifying for that role. This remark has come at the back of Indian fans and former cricketers often noting down flaws in the Indian team selection.
“For every decision, there can be a counter-opinion. So those opinions we have to address, and we have to take into account. But the final decision is always taken by the cricket committee as well as the selectors,” Saikia concluded.
Gautam Gambhir is irreplaceable until his contract terminates
Devajit Saikia’s words on this occasion have confirmed the formerly stated claims that Gautam Gambhir is irreplaceable to the BCCI until his contract ends in 2027. Gambhir took up the role after the T20 World Cup win in 2024 and is expected to continue till the 2027 CWC in South Africa.
The 2026 ICC T20 World Cup will be his first World Cup as head coach and second ICC tournament in the role. If Gambhir manages to win the title with India, they would become the first team to have defended their title. Also, Gambhir’s other flaws would be ignored by the Indian fans.
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