BCCI officials question CoA’s urgency in appointing next India coach

By Baidurjo Bhose

New Delhi, July 17 (IANS) The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) decided to invite applications for the coach and support staff of the Indian team on Tuesday and that sudden urge to appoint the coaching staff has taken certain sections of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by surprise, especially with the date of the Annual General Meeting already announced -- October 22.

Speaking to IANS, a senior board official said that while the CoA earlier said that there would be a review meeting with the coach and skipper on the team's performance in the World Cup, they have suddenly decided to go ahead and invite applications for the coaching staff and the urgency factor cannot be ignored.

"This is wrong at many levels. Firstly the principle, when the CoA has already announced the date for the elections then why the tearing hurry for these appointments? Are they catering to someone's desire of having someone specific at a particular position?

"One alternative is that they seem to be in a rush to sweep things under the carpet with respect to the World Cup. A report must be sought from not only the manager but also each of the specific coaches. The physio and trainer should also be asked to submit their reports. It would be necessary to set the rumours around the curious case of Vijay Shankar's injury and its handling by the management to rest.

"The batting coach (Sanjay Bangar) must have answers for the number 4 question since it is obvious that it was the team management that was asking for certain players to be included. He must also answer if he was not informed about the injury to Shankar," the official said.

Interestingly, even though the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S Laxman isn't defunct, the CoA has asked for a fresh committee since the trio is waiting clarity on their roles to avoid conflict of interest. Another board official said that it was absurd that now a new CAC might get appointed as that would lead to flouting of rules of the new constitution registered by the CoA.

"There is utter confusion as to who would be judging the applicants for the positions, old or existing. It has emerged that the CoA may appoint a new CAC. There are some obvious difficulties there. The original Lodha report did not provide for a CAC. The constitution that has been registered by the CoA has some additions that have not been expressly approved by the Supreme Court and the same is being challenged.

"Even if we go as per the new constitution as finalised by the CoA, it is only the general body that may appoint a CAC. So if they were to appoint a CAC, they would be flouting their own constitution. This has to be dealt with by the general body or as was the case with the appointment of the ombudsman, by the SC," the official explained.

(Baidurjo Bhose can be contacted at baidurjo.b@ians.in)