Ravi Shastri will continue as the Indian team’s director of cricket until the end of the 2015 World Cup, following a decision taken at the BCCI’s working committee meeting on Friday
Amol Karhadkar26-Sep-20144:19
Agarkar: Shastri’s presence lifts younger players
Shastri wanted to join team early
After the extension to his term as team director, Shastri will no longer be able to perform any role as a media expert. He will neither commentate nor write syndicated columns for newspapers after the conclusion of the Champions League Twenty20 till the end of the World Cup. While the BCCI had no problems in Shastri continuing his media obligations during the West Indies series and joining the team support staff in Australia, Shastri is believed to have told the BCCI hierarchy that he would prefer to join the team straightaway to suit both himself and the team. According to a BCCI insider, Shastri felt he wouldn’t be able express his opinions on air about players he would be joining and if he does, it may not send the right signals to the players before he joins them in the dressing room.
Ravi Shastri will continue as the Indian team’s director of cricket until the end of the 2015 World Cup, following a decision taken at the BCCI’s working committee meeting on Friday. Duncan Fletcher remains head coach of the side while the tenures of the three support staff members – Sanjay Bangar, B Arun and R Sridhar – have been extended until the end of the World Cup.The working committee also decided that the board’s annual general meeting (AGM), where the office bearers for the next three years will be elected, will be held on November 20.According to its own regulations, the BCCI has to convene its AGM before September 30 every year. The meeting has, however, been deferred this year after India’s Supreme Court ordered BCCI president N Srinivasan to step aside until the investigations into the IPL 2013 corruption scandal were complete. The ambiguity over the powers of the interim president, Shivlal Yadav, had added to the issues surrounding the delay of the AGM.*The working committee authorised secretary Sanjay Patel to decide the fate of Joe Dawes and Trevor Penney, India’s bowling and fielding coach respectively who had been sent on leave midway through the England tour. While Patel had confirmed earlier this week that both the coaches had been offered to work at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, he would discuss the issue in detail with the duo before arriving at a final decision. If Dawes and Penney are to be released before their contract expires at the end of March 2015, they will have to be compensated financially for premature termination.At today’s meeting, the working committee also congratulated N Srinivasan, who attended as a representative of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, for having taken over as the ICC chairman. It would be interesting to see if Srinivasan’s presence in the working committee would be interpreted as contempt of court since the working committee is the board’s decision-making body.Aditya Verma, the petitioner in the IPL corruption-scandal case, took strong objections to Srinivasan attending the meeting and stated that he will raise the point when his application on forcing the BCCI to immediately convene its AGM will be heard by the Supreme Court on October 10. According to Verma, the Supreme Court in its various orders had specified “Srinivasan will not attend any day to day affairs of BCCI till the probe concludes. But today BCCI, headed by Mr Shivlal Yadav, has clearly violated the order of honourable Supreme Court”.With regards to the Rajasthan Cricket Association’s suspension case, while the working committee decided to wait till the disciplinary committee’s proceedings in the matter are completed, the members felt the BCCI needed to make another attempt to ensure the players do not suffer. As a result, the ad-hoc committee constituted to oversee cricket in disputed regions, headed by Karnataka State Cricket Association secretary Brijesh Patel, has been advised to make one last attempt to sort out the issue with the Rajasthan state government.Brijesh Patel and his colleagues in the committee are thus expected to try and meet Rajasthan state government officials to try and convince them to let a BCCI-backed Rajasthan team participate in domestic tournaments. Since RCA is governed under Rajasthan Sports Act, the BCCI cannot nominate a team from Rajasthan without the state government’s permission.The committee also approved the accounts for the previous financial year which was signed by the treasurer. Other decisions taken at the meeting included limiting A teams to Under-23 players, and forming a committee to assess the damage caused by the floods in Jammu & Kashmir to the state’s cricketing infrastructure.* September 26 2.30pm GMT This story has been modified with updates about the status of Joe Dawes and Trevor Penney