Kolkata: After having successfully appointed Bharat Arun as the bowling coach, newly appointed head coach Ravi Shastri now apparently wants the iconic Sachin Tendulkar to be the batting consultant for the Indian team. Tendulkar is a part of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) that named Shastri as the next coach of the Indian team after Anil Kumble.
Sanjay Bangar has now been promoted to be the assistant coach while R Sridhar has been retained as the fielding coach. Both of them have been retained till the 2019 World Cup.
In a meeting with the BCCI’S special committee comprising of acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary, CEO Rahul Johri and CoA member Diana Edulji, Shastri reportedly opened up on his intentions of having Tendulkar as a part of his support staff.
However the committee, keeping the issue of the ,’conflict of interest’ in mind said that any role with the Indian team whether part-time or full-time has to be free of the same.
A member of the committee said in an interaction with the PTI, “Ravi put forward the idea of having Sachin on board as a consultant for a very short period. But the committee promptly reminded him about the conflict of interest clause.”
Sachin would however have to give up on his commitments in the IPL if he goes ahead and becomes the batting consultant for the Indian team. “And expecting someone to be around for an extremely short period and leave his other professional commitments is asking for a bit too much,” the member added.
The same is the case with veteran pacer Zaheer Khan, who has said that he would be with the team for 25 days in a year and continue with his commitments in the IPL. The member further added, “I doubt for 25 days in a year, you would want to forgo all your other commitments.”
The ambiguity related to the roles of Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid continues to grow with every passing day. On Tuesday, the support staff for the Indian team was announced.
Bharat Arun as a result of becoming the bowling coach would now have to let go all his commitments with Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL and VB Thiruvallur Veeran in the TNPL for staying clear of conflict of interest.
Team more than Individuals
While speaking to the media before their tour of Sri Lanka, Ravi Shastri stressed on the team effort and the team spirit and said that it is all that matters the most other than individuals. He said, “Shastris and Kumbles will come and go, the fabric of the team will remain.”