New Delhi: 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.
By Baidurjo Bhose
