BCCI wants Dravid as Team India coach

Wednesday 06th April 2016 06:27 EDT
 
 

The Indian cricket board's advisory committee is keen to have batting legend Rahul Dravid as the chief coach of senior team. Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman have approached Dravid to enquire about thinking. Rahul was said to have told committee that he would give a thought to the proposal.

Sources say should Dravid agree to take up the challenge, he is likely to be given a free hand and a long-term contract, possibly extending to the 2019 World Cup. There is no clarity, however, on ex-cricketer and commentator Ravi Shastri, whose term as India's team director ended with India's campaign in the ongoing World T20. Shastri, it is learnt, is keen on continuing to work with the Indian team, but highly-placed sources say he is not being considered for the role of the head coach.

The advisory committee will meet soon to discuss the issue of the chief coach. Dravid is presently the mentor of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Daredevils. Before this he led the India Under-19 team to the World Cup final in Bangladesh last month.

While playing for Rajasthan Royals earlier, Dravid had also taken up the role of a mentor for the franchise, a job in which he continued even after quitting the game. BCCI's present mindset can be seen in the backdrop of having watched Dravid seamlessly blend with youngsters across all formats of the game.

Further, with India scheduled to play 18 Test matches between June 2016 and March 2017, a proven-hand like Dravid makes all the more sense to the board right now.

Neither Dravid nor any of the three-member advisory committee members were available for comment. The board had earlier contacted former Australia batsman Michael Hussey to take up the challenge but the arrangement failed to work out.

In the meantime, the BCCI is all set to continue with the services of assistant coach Sanjay Bangar, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar for now. Their contracts are likely to be extended soon.


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