Next India Head Coach As He Won’t Pick His Support Staff

In a break from the past, the head coach of Indian cricket team can’t pick his own support staff. According to a source from the Indian cricket board, while the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) will appoint a head coach, the selection committee headed by MSK Prasad and his colleagues Jatin Paranjpe, Gagan Khoda, Sarandeep Singh and Devang Gandhi will shortlist the support staff. It is learnt that the BCCI legal team informed the Committee of Administrators that as per the new constitution, the selection committee will have to appoint support staff and CAC only has to appoint a head coach.

HIGHLIGHTS

• BCCI’s new advertisement seeks applicants who have prior coaching experience
• Ravi Shastri had no prior coaching experience when he replaced Anil Kumble in 2017
• Shastri had earlier worked with India as the team director from August 2014 to June 2016

The BCCI on Tuesday had invited application for head coach, batting, bowling, fielding coach, physiotherapist, strength and conditioning coach and administrative manager for the Indian team.

In the past, the board had given head coaches the liberty to pick their core support staff. From John Wright, India’s first overseas coach to Ravi Shastri, the incumbent, they brought men of their choice. Shastri had emphasised in his first press conference that the coach needed to work with a familiar group for better output. “The understanding and familiarity between the coaches will obviously help in the collective cause of the team. It’s one of the crucial aspects in team building,” he had said.

So Shastri was allowed to pick bowling coach Bharat Arun, who hadn’t featured under Anil Kumble’s regime. Arun had been in the team since Duncan Fletcher’s tenure but once Kumble took over he doubled up as the bowling coach. But as soon the latter left and Shastri took over, he returned to the team.

Batting coach Sanjay Bangar and fielding coach R Sridhar too were retained, their contract extended till the World Cup. All of them were given a 45-day extension, though trainer Shankar Basu and physio Patrick Farhaat refused the offer.

Interestingly, the BCCI constitution has invested the signatory powers in picking the support staff to CEO Rahul Johri. It’s the selection committee that has the signatory powers in appointing the support staff of junior and women’s teams.

But in the case of the support staff for the senior team, the selectors will convey the names to Johri, who will give the final approval. The current coach and support staff, though will be given automatic entry into the recruitment process, the BCCI said in a statement.

As for the CAC, the CoA has asked the general manager of cricket operations, Saba Karim, to look for a new committee after three former great Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly were found under a conflict of interest charges during a meeting held in New Delhi a few days ago. Tendulkar had recused himself from CAC whereas Ganguly and Laxman had to choose between their roles in IPL franchise and CAC. Though the order passed by BCCI’s ethics officer DK Jain last month has yet to be implemented.