Zaheer Khan appointed as bowling consultant for specific overseas tours, clarifies BCCI

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New Delhi, July 14: Amid stand-off between Cricket Advisory Committee and newly appointed India head coach Ravi Shastri over bowling coach, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has come out in support of the CAC.

The BCCI has clarified that Zaheer Khan has been appointed as Team India's bowling consultant for specific overseas tours.

Fresh controversy started when reports emerged that Shastri was unhappy with the appointment of Zaheer as bowling coach as he wants to bring his trusted man Bharat Arun for the job.

Reports in some quarters claimed the Committee of Administrators (CoA) felt that the CAC, comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, went beyond their duty of picking the coach.

Hurt by these criticism and reports, the CAC has written a letter to the CoA chairman Vinod Rai and said the appointments were made after informing the new coach Shastri and India captain Virat Kohli.

"We spoke to Mr Shastri about getting Mr Khan and Mr Dravid on board in these capacities, and he readily agreed to the idea of having them in the set-up so that it would benefit the team and Indian cricket as a whole in time to come," the letter is quoted to have stated by PTI.

"It was only after getting Mr Shastri's consent that we also recommended Mr Khan and Mr Dravid, in their respective capacities."

CAC also pointed out it was given a free reign to appoint a new coaching setup after efforts to reconcile differences between former coach Anil Kumble and Kohli had proved futile.

"There have been suggestions that the CAC has exceeded its ambit in going with Mr Khan and Mr Dravid and these two legends of Indian cricket has been foisted on the head coach. Also we did inform you (Rai) over the phone along with Rahul Johri (BCCI CEO) and Amitabh Choudhary (BCCI Secretary) of all that transpired immediately after the meeting was over," the letter said.

The CoA later released a media release in the wake of the CAC letter and clarified that Zaheer and Dravid have been appointed as the consultants and they would be a part of the team during specific overseas tours.

The BCCI release on Thursday said: "The recommendation for Mr. Ravi Shastri was made on the merit of his presentation and the vision that he projected for taking the team to greater heights. After taking the decision on his selection, the CAC consulted him and decided on having Batting and Bowling consultants on overseas tour-to-tour basis, as per the requirement of the team."

As per a Times of India report, the BCCI has now put the contract drafts for all three (Shastri, Zaheer and Dravid) on hold and asked for the drafts when they meet on Saturday (July 15).

"The BCCI'S legal team was working on the contracts. But the CoA asked us to first show them the drafts. Given the situation, it does look like Shastri's wish to have Bharat Arun as a full-time bowling coach will be accepted. And the way the contract is likely to shape, it will be difficult for Zaheer to accept the role of a consultant on a tour-to-tour basis," a top BCCI official told the news daily late on Thursday.

OneIndia News