BANGALORE, Nov 3: A day after announcing his retirement, Anil Kumble on Monday refuted suggestions that he had been under pressure from the cricket establishment to quit and made it clear that there was no “retirement scheme” under which senior Indian stars were calling it a day.

“There was no talk of BCCI telling any player to retire. I don’t think any player needs to be told about when to retire. It (the reported retirement plan) is all false,” Kumble said.

“Nobody told me when to retire. Sourav (Ganguly) took his decision, I took mine, there was no pressure. Let’s leave it to the individuals. Criticism is fine but don’t do it without reason. Don’t start questioning the players’ ability. There is no retirement scheme, that’s rubbish,” he retorted when pressed on the issue.

Kumble’s comments came in the wake of speculation that he was under pressure to announce his retirement and Ganguly, who is to retire at the end of the Nagpur Test this week, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman had all been given a deadline by the Cricket Board to hang up their boots by the end of India-England series this year. Kumble said his successor Mahendra Singh Dhoni would prove to be a successful captain and Indian cricket was safe under his leadership.

“This is the right decision and now I hand over this role to Dhoni. We have a very able leader in him. Team is also looking very nice I am sure it will continue to move forward. Indian cricket is in safe hands,” he said.

Asked about Dilip Vengsarkar’s comments that his time was up a day before his retirement, Kumble said he prefers not to take such statements personally and instead thanked the former chief selector for giving him an opportunity to captain the Indian Test side.

“It is something which I don’t take personally. That’s his opinion. I don’t know about it, some journalists came to me and told me about what he had said. I don’t read newspapers so I don’t know. But thanks to Dilip I got to be the captain of the team. I am thankful to all those who made it possible,” he said.

On his future plans, Kumble said he is working towards opening an academy for budding cricketers.—Agencies