Two years on, the CAC remains only a paper tiger

Accusations of ‘Big Three’ exceeding their brief to hurt them

coach Sanjay Bangar being elevated as assistant coach and Bharat Arun making a comeback as bowling coach. No prizes for guessing that Shastri had his say in the selection of both candidates, and rightly so, while the status of the appointments (or recommendations) of CACnominated Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan will stay in limbo for now.

The chairman of Committee of Administrators (COA), Vinod Rai, had gone on record saying that the brief given to the trio was that of selecting the chief coach — implying that the candidature of Dravid and Khan was imposed on Shastri. The BCCI, however, had unequivocally named Dravid as the batting consultant for overseas tours and Khan as the bowling coach in their press release on July 12 night — a decision which they went back on at their convenience.

According to informed sources, the COA is unhappy at the role of the elite panel and have raised questions over its functioning — right from its composition (all the members being part of a Fab Four and belonging to the same generation of players) to their terms of reference. The presence of Laxman in the committee has also raised questions of a conflict of interest as he has been a mentor of the IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad, whose coach Tom Moody was one of the major contenders for the coach’s job.

Elite players

A re-look at the terms of reference of CAC, an unpaid job till now, says: to focus on improving performances overseas, creating a pathway to track a young cricketer’s career from under-19 to India-A to the international team, arriving at a decision about the balance between T20, ODIs and Test cricket for the country’s elite players, managing the bowling load for fast bowlers, means to improve the quality of Indian spinners, education and life skills for young cricketers.

In reality, the only occasion when the CAC comes alive is for the selection of national coaches, while the famed trio failed to resolve the simmering discontent between Kohli and erstwhile supremo Anil Kumble during the ICC Champions Trophy.

As the Indian team moves on for their upcoming assignment in Sri Lanka, the CAC have been clearly left nursing their hurt egos. A situation which — suffice to say — could have been handled better by all parties concerned.