The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) finally broke their silence and announced Ravi Shastri as the Indian team head coach.
The role is not a new one for Shastri, who held the position of ‘team director’ of the national side from 2014 until 2016. This appointment in a way is good for Indian cricket as Shastri has already worked with Virat Kohli in the past and seemed to have got along well with the captain.
Ravi Shastri himself is an aggressive individual, and it will be interesting to see the team dynamics when he takes over as the head coach.
The other interesting appointment came in the way of Rahul Dravid as the team batting consultant. This position has been announced with the caveat that he will be the batting consultant for the Indian team only for the overseas Test matches.
This is really a strange appointment. Even though it will be a great learning experience for the players to learn from a legend like Rahul Dravid, the limitation in his role might hamper his impact.
The fact that Rahul Dravid is also the coach of the India A and the under-19 teams makes you wonder as to why he has been offered the role of the batting consultant of the national team as well.
Zaheer Khan has been appointed as the bowling coach, which is also an interesting selection. Zaheer does not have any coaching pedigree and hasn’t done any coaching at the highest level. He did mentor the bowlers while playing for India and for his IPL side, but coaching a national side is completely a different ball game.
It will be interesting to see how Zaheer handles this role and how the bowlers respond to him as coach. Zaheer is still an active player and played this season for Delhi Daredevils, so it will be interesting to see if he will continue as a player for his IPL side next season.
So finally the search for the national coach has come to an end with this appointment. The selection of Shastri seems to have been made on the premise of his working relationship with Virat Kohli in the past. The exit of Anil Kumble and the way it happened might have been the reason for this decision, as there were coaches with better pedigree competing with Ravi Shastri.
The Cricket Advisory Committee, comprising Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, were not happy the way the exit of Kumble was handled, and that might have been the reason for this quick announcement by BCCI.
I feel in the current scenario this was probably the right decision for the team. This appointment has ended the two-month controversy, and hopefully the team can now concentrate on the Sri Lankan tour which starts on 26 July.
Ravi Shastri, Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan will start their coaching stints in Sri Lanka and would be hoping to get off to a winning start in their first assignment.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
BCCI pull out of Zaheer and Rahul Dravid's appointment. So seems like some disagreement between the CAC and BCCI.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
He was rich maharaja, who bought his way into the team as captain. Yup as you said different era.
Paul D
Roar Guru
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharajkumar_of_Vizianagram I reckon this chap gave him a run for his money in his brief moment as captain in 1936! Different era though
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
Shastri says, "Always the captain's team", about sums up his role with the Indian team as the head coach.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
I think this makes him possibly the biggest player ever in Indian cricket. I don't remember anyone having so much power in the past.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I'm telling you, this is Kohli's side now, 100%. He doesn't want the dead hand of retired greats telling him how to run it. He will rightly tell them - hey, you had your chance in the limelight, now it's my turn. Back off It works so long as he's scoring runs.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
It is funny that CAC mentions that Tom Moody and Richard Pybus gave brilliant presentations and answered tough questions very well in the interview. Ravi Shastri has been chosen in spite of that. They did mention that Ravi also did well in the interview but again when everyone does well, the pedigree and experience of the coach comes into play and I think Tom Moody and Richard Pybus win on that basis. This seems more like a calculated decision from the BCCI and CAC. Even though they both deny having sought Kohli's opinion, I think he had input on the final selection.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
It is Cricket Advisory Committee comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. This was formed with the intention of helping out the BCCI with the technical aspect of the game and also with Coach interviews, selection etc. They were the ones who appointed Anil Kumble last year.
Johnno
Guest
What is CAC
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
More controversy as BCCI is not happy with CAC appointing Zaheer and Dravid. The plot thickens. When is this drama going to end? Now the CAC send a letter to BCCI and it is in the media.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
Ravi Shastri has always been a BCCI supporter and his appointment as the Team Director to oversee the coaching staff was due to that fact. He did form a good working relationship with Kohli and also applied for the head coach position last year. Kumble was chosen by the CAC as they felt he was the better candidate. The current appointment of Ravi Shastri by BCCI was done in a hurry after they had denied reports of naming a coach just a day before the announcement. Very strange by BCCI all around. There are also reports going around that the CAC is not happy with Shastri's appointment, which is fair enough as they did not feel he was the right candidate just a year ago and suddenly would not have changed their mind. This seems to have been a decision made by BCCI in collaboration with the team captain.
Johnno
Guest
Bob Simpson wasn't a yes man at all, both him and AB were jointly in charge but I'd still say Bob Simpson was the main boss, he was very authoritarian and he left some players offside with his domineering ways, and the Chappell's often criticised him when Bob simpson was coach. Shastri will be a lap dog and a yes man and a PR man and do what the BCCI tell him to do and will stroke Kholi's ego. One of the reasons Viv Richards and Lara in his prime clashed was Viv when he was coach didn't take any crap from Brian Lara and Lara felt Viv was a dominating presence and a thorn in his side. Tendulkar and Greg Chapell clashed to, neither giving an inch...
Paul D
Roar Guru
On reflection I reckon what this is, is that Kohli is a Mark Taylor type skipper in the sense that he wants to run the side and stamp his authority on it, not the coach, as was the way with Simpson & Border before him. Kumble as an ex-test Captain of India and not used to being a pliant subordinate probably clashed with him over the level of control over the side. At heart it had to have been a power struggle, surely. Shastri is in because he's a yes man, he's a good media operator and PR guy and will go out there and keep everyone off Kohli's back while he focuses on getting the team to win, and without Shastri getting in his way.
Johnno
Guest
Yep well said, Kapil Dev did speak up and they didn't forgive him. Someone with his credentials if he would have just been quiet or a lap dog like Shastri or Gavasker, he'd have a nice cushy BCCI job..
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
BCCI always had issues with outspoken individuals. Kapil Dev who probably needs to be celebrated in India finds himself outside any administrative role in BCCI. He did coach India unsuccessfully for a brief period in 2000 which ended with the match fixing fiasco where he himself was accused by Manoj Prabhakar. Kapil also hurt BCCI's ego when he joined the rebel league ICL. Even though he resigned from the league, BCCI I guess never forgot that.
Johnno
Guest
It seems anyone in cricket who opposes the BCCI in India won't last long.. Kapil Dev was critical of em and he was spat out of the system..
Paul D
Roar Guru
Shastri gets the sack or resigns? I don't see how else it ends. They're not going to sack Kohli and keep Shastri, are they. I know it's fashionable to bag out old tracer bullets but if he really is just a BCCI shill he's going to have next to no influence over the players and will just be there to be a buffer between the players and the rest of the world. He's just there to soothe egos and talk to people the players don't want to talk to, as Giri says, any real technical coaching will be done by the consultants.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Some players need coaching, others don't. I think they are still relevant but often it's not a matter of offering simply technical advice, cricket is as much a mental game as anything else. Often the best coaches are able to notice something the player will have overlooked or suggest an idea and leave the player to work out how best to deal with it. The best coaches are able to suppress their own ego and put their talents utterly at the disposal of the player and ensure that whatever support they offer and whatever advice they give, however frank or fearless, is all about getting the player to perform the best they possibly can. As a man manager Shastri I think is an excellent choice for India. Boof is a different coach to Buchanan. Each is good in their own way. I don't pretend to have the expertise to separate them by such a blunt instrument as 'better'
spruce moose
Guest
It's restored only until Kohli and Shastri have a disagreement. Then what? Secondly, Shastri has shown himself to be embarrassingly uniformed about modern cricket. He's just appalling to listen to. It's concerning India are happy investing in him to cultivate the future talent.
Giri Subramanian
Roar Guru
Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar have done that for a long time. Shastri probably already has clear boundaries defined while he was the team manager. But now with the head coach tag, not sure if he will change. It will be interesting to see that.