New India coach Shastri wants Tendulkar as consultant

NEW DELHI — India head coach Ravi Shastri now wants batting great Sachin Tendulkar to work with the national team as a consultant, provided it is not a case of conflict of interest.

Shastri expressed the desire to have Tendulkar on board during yesterday’s meeting with the BCCI special committee comprising acting president CK Khanna, CEO Rahul Johri, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and Committee Of Administrators member Diana Edulji. Tendulkar is part of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) which picked Shastri as the coach.

The special committee made it clear that any role with the national team, be it full-time or as a consultant, has to be clear of conflict of interest. “Ravi put forward the idea of having Sachin on board as a consultant for a very short period. But the committee promptly reminded him about the conflict of interest clause,” a member of the committee, who did not wish to be identified as the information is not meant to be public, told PTI.

If Tendulkar does accept the role, it would mean that he would have to let go of his various other commitments including the IPL. “And expecting someone to be around for an extremely short period and leave his other professional commitments is asking for a bit too much,” said the member.

Similar is the case with Zaheer, who wants be around with the team for about 25 days in a year and continue with his other engagements including the IPL. —