CHENNAI: Following suggestions by the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), the Indian cricket board finally appointed an administrative manager on Friday. Former Tamil Nadu left-arm spinner Sunil Subramaniam will join the Indian cricket team in Sri Lanka in time for the second Test and will continue as an administrative manager with the team for one year.
After the Court directed the BCCI to implement Lodha recommendations, the CoA had asked the board to streamline its appointment of administrative managers during overseas tours. It asked BCCI to not appoint managers to please state associations or individuals and that the entire process needed to be more transparent, especially after the entire Virat Kohli-Anil Kumble fiasco. The CoA was keen to make the appointment a contractual one and made it imperative that applicants should have the experience of playing first-class cricket. The BCCI sought applications and closed the process on July 21. Subramaniam was one of many to apply for the post.
An elated Subramaniam revealed he received a call and an email confirmation from the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri in the evening. “I’m delighted. I’m looking forward to joining the team in Sri Lanka. A manager’s role is not to be frowned upon. There are young guys and things can go wrong. It helps if the manager has the experience of playing the game as he will understand the pressure associated with it,” he told Express. “I have certain plans of how to go about things.
I have a meeting with the CEO in Mumbai on Monday where I will be briefed about how to go about things. Hopefully, things will pan out well. Maintaining the sanctity of the dressing room is obviously of utmost importance.” Subramanian, 50, played 74 first-class matches, the majority of them for Tamil Nadu and a few for Assam.