BCCI picks Sunil Subramaniam as manager; no decision on other teams
NEW DELHI: Former Tamil Nadu left-arm spinner Sunil Subramaniam was on Friday appointed as the administrative manager of the Indian cricket team for a one- year tenure.
Subramaniam, who is best known as Ravichandran Ashwin’s childhood coach, will join the team before the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo, starting August 3.
“The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Friday appointed former First Class cricketer Mr. Sunil Subramanian as the Administrative Manager of Team India (Senior Men),” a BCCI statement said.
“He will be contracted for a one-year term and join Team India in Sri Lanka before the start of second Test.”
Subramaniam, who played 74 matches for Assam and Tamil Nadu has taken 285 wickets apart from scoring 1096 runs.
Interestingly, the BCCI has decided against appointing managers of India A and India U-19 teams for the time being.
“At one point of time Arman Malik was said to be in the running to be appointed India A manager and the choice for India U-19 manager was between Prakash Bhatt and Shankar Saini.
“However, Malik does not qualify as he does not have a single first class match against his name. Later it was decided that since India A and U-19 teams do not have as many series as the senior team, there is no need to appoint a full time manager. BCCI can depute somebody from its administration to perform the duty as and when required,” a BCCI official said.
Subramaniam’s claim to fame has been as the coach who taught Ashwin the tricks of the trade regarding offspin bowling. Subramaniam also captained Tamil Nadu in Ranji Trophy and is a National Cricket Academy (NCA) certified coach. “He also has a rich vein of experience when it comes to management and administrative capabilities having served both public and private sector organisations for over 16 years,” the BCCI statement added. KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the central government to ensure participation of P U Chitra in the World Athletics Championships in London next month.
Justice P B Suresh Kumar, in an interim order, directed the government to make all arrangements to see that Chitra participates in the event.
The court also observed that the selection process for the championship appears to be not transparent and qualified athletes were ignored.
The case will be considered on Monday for detailed hearing.
The court had on Thursday sought an explanation from the central government on the exclusion of the Kerala athlete from the Indian squad for the championships.
Hearing Chitra’s petition against the decision by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), Justice Suresh Kumar had asked the Centre to inform the source of funding for international events.
Chitra, who had recently won a gold in the women’s 1500m event in the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar, filed the writ petition after she was excluded from the Indian squad by the Federation.
In her plea, she said her gold medal performance at the Asian Athletics Championships made her an automatic pick for the World Championships.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had backed Chitra and said in a Facebook post that excluding the athlete, who was the “pride not only of Kerala, but also the country, from the team for World Athletics Championship, is condemnable”. Former national champion P T Usha had said that Chitra had not been included in the team as she did not meet the qualifying mark set by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).