PRETORIA (South Africa), Sept 16: Indian cricket board might be unhappy with coach Gary Kirsten for commenting on the captaincy issue but the former South Africa opener has found the backing from country-mate Mickey Arthur, who blamed Indian media for the furore.

Arthur feels Kirsten did nothing wrong when he said India’s limited-overs skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was ready to take charge of the Test team.

“Kumble is 38, for goodness sake. He has back-to-back series against Australia and Pakistan coming up. How long do people expect him to carry on?” Arthur asked.

“All Gary was doing was attempting to re-assure the Indians that Dhoni was qualified and ready to take over. And yet the media managed to twist his words into an attack on Kumble.”

Arthur felt this could fuel tension between the captain and coach. “The relationship between captain and coach is critical to success of any international team. I have personal experience of how much respect there is between Gary and Anil,” he expressed.—Agencies