Coach Shastri has his way

Mumbai, The Indian cricket board (BCCI) today appointed Bharat Arun as the bowling coach of the national team, ending days of confusion surrounding the position. Arun was India’s bowling coach during Ravi Shastri’s tenure as the team director and the latter had been insisting on having him back after he was appointed the chief coach.
The decision to appoint Arun, for a period of two years, was taken after Shastri met the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and BCCI officials, including acting president CK Khanna and secretary Amitabh Choudhary.
“I was in England watching tennis but I was very clear in my mind about what my core team would be,” Shastri said after Choudhary announced the appointment.
Arun is likely to resign from the position of an assistant coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore. Besides, BCCI also decided to retain Sanjay Bangar as an assistant coach and R Sridhar as the fielding coach till the 2019 World Cup. “Patrick Farhat also continues as physio. All of them are part of the team for two years, until the end of the next World Cup,” Choudhary said.
No clarity on Zaheer, Dravid
Arun’s appointment marks a complete u-turn for BCCI as it had named Zaheer Khan as the bowling consultant on the day Shastri was named the chief coach. The board, however, later clarified that Khan would come on board just for overseas tours. Besides, there’s no clarity on Rahul Dravid’s position as a batting consultant either.
“I have spoken to both the individuals and they are as good as they were three or four years ago, and they are fantastic cricketers,” Shastri came up with a cryptic response when asked what their roles would be. “Their inputs will be invaluable, they will be on board when they speak to these authorities. It depends on their availability, the number of days they want to give, they are most welcome.”
Choudhary, however, said there was never any confusion on Dravid and Zaheer despite the obvious flip-flops. “I am absolutely clear that it is not a fiasco. Once we appointed the head coach, obviously he had to think of the responsibility that came with the job. It was very clear he wanted his core team. The other two (Zaheer and Dravid) are consultants,” he said.
Shastri thanked the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) for picking him for the high-profile job. “I would like to thank CAC because it is a privilege to be India’s coach, “ he said.
Shoddy handling
The handling of Khan’s and Dravid’s appointment has come in for severe criticism with former CoA member Ramachandra Guha calling it a “public humiliation” of the two stalwarts of Indian cricket. Neither Khan nor Dravid has yet spoken about the lack of clarity regarding their positions.