What’s the story?
Sourav Ganguly has responded to CoA Chairman Vinod Rai’s diktat of announcing the name of the new India coach by Tuesday evening by saying that the announcements made on Monday were done after due consultation with the CoA.
TOI Sports quoted Ganguly in of their tweets as having said, “Will speak to Vinod Rai as what was decided yesterday was with permission.”
Earlier today, the chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), Vinod Rai, had taken exception to the BCCI’s move to deferring the decision to announce the India coach in favour of a consultation with Virat Kohli and had asked the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) to announce the name of the next coach by Tuesday evening.
A well-placed source with The Hindu quoted, "Mr. Rai has asked the BCCI to announce the name the head coach by Tuesday evening. He has spoken to the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and to the BCCI acting Secretary Amitabh Choudhary and asked to name the head coach.”
This was in stark contrast to Sourav Ganguly’s comments last evening wherein he had sought more time for the selection of the coach as he wanted all the ‘stakeholders’ including the captain, Kohli, on the same page and wanted to let Kohli know about the manner in which the coaches want to function.
“Kohli needs to understand how different coaches operate. We will speak to him after he returns from (South) America,” Ganguly had said after interviewing five candidates for the job, namely Ravi Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Lalchand Rajput, Richard Pybus and Tom Moody.
In case you didn’t know...
The CAC, which was tasked with the job of picking the next coach of the team, yesterday said that it was in ‘no hurry’ to pick the next coach and that they would wait for due consultations and discussions before finalizing on a candidate’s name.
Ganguly, who made the announcement public on behalf of the CAC, also told that the committee has only interviewed all the candidates and is yet to zero in on a particular name for the role.
He didn’t set a deadline for the awaited announcement and instead contended that the BCCI is happy to continue with the same setup – that the team had during the tour of the West Indies – for the upcoming tour to Sri Lanka.
Details
Since Anil Kumble’s resignation from the post of the head coach last month, the coach selection process has been gathering news for several reasons.
First, the BCCI had set May 31 as the deadline for the applications against the post advertised on May 25, but post the conclusion of India’s Champions Trophy campaign – at the end of which Kumble’s contract with the side also expired – when Kumble decided not to renew his contract, fresh applications were invited by the board and the deadline for such applications was set to July 9.
At the expiry of the said deadline, six candidates were shortlisted to be interviewed based – the five names already mentioned plus Phil Simmons, the former West Indies coach – but only five could be interviewed on Monday, July 10, owing to Simmons’ unavailability.
Ganguly was present alongside VVS Laxman to interview the candidates, while Sachin Tendulkar – the third member of the committee – joined in via Skype. Of the five candidates interviewed, four were present in person to give their presentations, while Shastri appeared for the interview also through Skype.
What’s next?
While Ganguly didn’t set a date on which the announcement of the next coach is likely to be made, the CoA has made its opinions clear on the matter.
Rai has asked the CAC to announce the name of the coach by Tuesday (July 11) evening, and it would be interesting to see if the BCCI adheres to the dictum. If that happens, it would also be interesting to know whether the captain was consulted before the announcement.
Author’s take
The coach saga that has unfolded before us over the past two months has raised more questions than it has answered. First, the validity of the CAC – appointed by the BCCI and not the Supreme Court – has been put under question, as the recommendations of the Lodha Panel categorically state that the coach needs to be picked by the three-member selection panel, which is also tasked to pick the teams for international tours.
However, the BCCI, in its continued efforts to stall the implementation of the order put in place by the highest court of the land, has ignored the directive and has formed a committee of its own, which can be deemed as a violation of the court’s order.
Also, in the judgment pronounced by the Court on July 18, 2016, it hasn’t been mentioned in black and white whether the captain or any of the office bearers need to be consulted before picking the coach of the side.
There are several gray areas in terms of how the BCCI has gone about its business and its day-to-day operations and a call is expected to be taken by the Court on such acts of misdemeanour once it hears the case next on July 14.
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