CHENNAI: The “process” the Board of Control for Cricket in India brought in to select a coach is sure to leave a hole in their pocket. While it is common to have 15 players in the squad, beginning from the series against Sri Lanka they will have 14 in the support staff which is easily the biggest ever for an international side.
As of Thursday, the Indian team had 14 and by Monday, there is likely to be an addition with new head coach Ravi Shastri trying to bring in Bharathi Arun again as full-time bowling coach. Though the Cricket Advisory Committee went against Shastri and picked Zaheer Khan for the role, the BCCI clarified that he will work as consultant only on overseas assignments.
Though Zaheer will travel to Sri Lanka, newly-appointed batting consultant Rahul Dravid will not, as being the coach of India A, he will be in South Africa. Express has reliably learnt that the CAC didn’t inform him about his appointment till the eleventh hour and seems to be reluctant on the role as he is already the coach of India A and U-19 sides.
“Dravid will never say no to helping the team, but the CAC should have taken into account that he is already in charge of two teams and he dedicates lot of time for it. How will he find time for this new role? There is too much workload on him. Moreover, with Sanjay Bangar (batting coach) around, Dravid also feels too many cooks might spoil the broth,” sources in the know said.
Of the 15, six are coaches, who specialise in individual skills and there is a possibility that too many ideas might create more confusion than leading to a solution and Shastri is likely to point this out to the CoA when he meets them on Monday.