End of Find the Coach drama. It's time to focus on cricket

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Bengaluru, July 18: After intense, month-long drama that started with the resignation of Anil Kumble reached its final chapter, hopefully, on Tuesday (July 18). Bharat Arun was appointed as India's bowling coach, Sanjay Bangar the assistant coach and R Sridhar the fielding coach till the 2019 World Cup.

However, there is no clarity on the roles of Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan, who were earlier announced as batting and bowling consultants respectievely for overseas tours.

"I've spoken to both, as recent as three to four days ago and they are two fantastic cricketers of India. Their inputs will be valuable. They will be on board once they have spoken to the authorities concerned," said the newly-appointed head coach Ravi Shastri, indicating that the services of Dravid and Zaheer could be sought at least based on necessity and their availability.

The decisions were taken after Shastri met the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and BCCI officials, including acting president CK Khanna and secretary Amitabh Chaudhary, at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.

So, this could be construed as a victory for Shastri and in effect for captain Virat Kohli too. There could be talks about how BCCI made a complete U-turn and accepted the demands, that could have carried the reflections of Kohli's thoughts on the matter, of the new coach.

There could also be debates about how the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, was serioulsy compromised in public because they made the recommendations for Dravid and Zaheer to be included in the coaching staff. The CoA and BCCI too had welcomed the CAC's suggestion through a formal mail.

But it has to be remembered that the head coach should be given the liberty to pick his support staff, considering all the previous Indian coaches had enjoyed that privilege of choice. For eg: Greg Chappell brought in Ian Frazer, Gary Kirsten was assisted by Eric Simons and Duncan Fletcher had his man Trevor Penny on his side. So, why Shastri should be denied of that prerogative? After all, the head coach will be in constant touch with the support staff in his effort to better the team's performance.

Admittedly, the entire episode - right from the Kumble-Kohli rift issue - has been handled so miserably and could be made into a soap opera - Find The Coach - that could be a chart buster. However, we need to put aside those topics now since a decision has been taken and certain individuals have been handed over the responsibility to shepherd the Indian team through the arduous road till '19 WC.

The first stop in this nearly two-year journey is Sri Lanka and their recent travails notwithstanding, the islanders still have the ability to catch a visitor napping. Then we have even tougher destinations like South Africa, Australia and England en route the World Cup.

Those trips will not be easy. Setbacks and failures could match or exceed the days of success. Let's try not to spread negativity in the atmosphere. After all, cricket has to take the front seat.

OneIndia News