CHENNAI: After recommendation from head coach Ravi Shastri, the BCCI committee formed to identify the support staff on Tuesday brought back Bharathi Arun as bowling coach for a two-year period until the 2019 World Cup.
Sanjay Bangar, who has been the batting coach for the last three years, was elevated to assistant coach. With fielding coach R Sridhar also on board, Shastri retained his core support team with whom he worked during his tenure between 2014-16.
Coach of Hyderabad with an IPL contract with Royal Challengers Bangalore, Arun is also coach in the Tamil Nadu Premier League. He will step down from all those posts to accept the India job. The appointment came after Shastri met board CEO Rahul Johri, acting president CK Khanna, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and CoA member Diana Edulji in Mumbai.
Though the BCCI said that Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid — named by the cricket advisory committee (CAC) as bowling and batting consultants — will work with the senior side, it’s understood that terms and conditions are yet to be decided.
When Shastri was named coach on July 11, the CAC said that Zaheer would be bowling consultant. It was believed that the committee didn’t accept Shastri’s request for Arun. Later, the CoA clarified what CAC made were only recommendations.
“I was in England. I was watching tennis. I was very clear in my mind what my core team will be. What you just heard is my core team,” Shastri, who is going to earn `8 crore per annum as per the new contract, said.
Choudhary defended the board and the CAC for the way they handled the coach-selection process. “I am absolutely clear in my view that it was not a fiasco. As Ravi explained, once he was appointed head coach, he obviously had to think of his responsibilities which come with the appointment. As he has made abundantly clear, he wanted his core team. He has spoken personally with the other two gentlemen (Dravid and Zaheer) and they will be consultants,” he said.
However, it is reliably learnt that the BCCI was still some distance away from finaising the remuneration for Zaheer. The pacer has a contract with Sony Six, which he has to give up as BCCI rules don’t permit any member of the support staff to have media commitments. There is also a conflict of interest issue, as Zaheer is the mentor of Delhi Daredevils in the IPL.
This newspaper understands that Zaheer, because he has been hired only as a consultant, has reservations about giving up these commitments. He wants the BCCI to compensate him if it also means a pay cut. Though CAC member Sourav Ganguly had stated that Zaheer will work 150 days a year, the BCCI later clarified that it would be 100.
However, now it seems to have come even down, with Zaheer demanding nearly Rs 4 crore for 75-80 days per year. The amount is significantly higher than what the regular support staff of the Indian senior side get. As per a recent revision, the three assistants get Rs 2 crore each. If Zaheer gets more, it is bound to raise questions.
“Since he has been hired as consultant, there is confusion. If allowed to continue with Delhi, he is willing to negotiate. But if he has to give up his contract just for the sake of working with the Indian team for only 100-odd days, then he believes he will have take a massive pay cut.
“He hasn’t said no to be consultant, just that we need to work out how it is going. There are no issues with Dravid,” a board official told Express.
venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com