Rahul Dravid says ‘No’ to Overseas Batting Consultant Offer

Picture Courtesy : DNA India

Former India captain and batting legend Rahul Dravid has been ruled out of overseas tours with the India team while the issues over the contract of former star pacer Zaheer Khan are yet to be sorted out, Committee of Administrators (CoA) Chairman Vinod Rai announced on Saturday.

According to Rai, Dravid has ruled himself out since he will be busy with his coaching role with the India A and U-19 sides. However, he will be available if India coach Ravi Shastri wants him when the senior team camps at the National Cricket Academy.

“The issues regarding Dravid’s contract are all sorted. He has two-year full-time contract and said that he is not available for tours abroad with the senior team. He does not want to hang around,” Rai told reporters after his meeting with BCCI officials.

According to IANS news report, Rai also said that the CoA and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are struggling to balance Zaheer Khan’s ongoing contract with the Indian Premier League (IPL) side Delhi Daredevils and his proposed consultancy role with the Indian team.

“Earlier, there was no system in place. We are trying to set templates. Zaheer is very much in scheme of coaching various Indian teams but we can only have him after we have a contract in place.

“We can’t just tell Zaheer okay we give you a three month or three week contract and these are conditions. We have to also look into his IPL contract, media commitments,” Rai said.

“It will be fixed only after consulting the persons involved. We have spoken to both Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan. In process of fixing template both will figure in panel depending upon type of coach required at any point of time,” he added.

The BCCI had formed a four-member committee on July 15 to take a call on the assistant coaches for the national cricket team.

The committee comprises BCCI acting President C.K. Khanna, acting Secretary Amitabh Choudhary, CoA member Diana Edulji and board CEO Rahul Johri as the convener.

Dravid and Zaheer were chosen by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman.

That has been a sticking point with new coach Ravi Shastri, who was reportedly interested in having his own set of assistant coaches. Shastri ultimately had his way with Bharat Arun being appointed bowling coach and Sanjay Bangar as assistant coach.

Asserting that the BCCI had full faith in the CAC, Rai dismissed suggestions that the committee has been insulted in the process.

“They are busy people and their only intention was to give a good coach. The remit of the CAC was to appoint chief coach. The CEO and acting Secretary (Amitabh Chaudhary) were present when the presentations were being made and they zeroed in on Ravi Shastri.

“However, subsequently they (CAC) recommended names of two consultants (Zaheer and Dravid) and both CEO and acting Secretary were not privy,” Rai said.

“That’s the reason there was a lacunae in the first BCCI press release which stated that they have been appointed.”

Rai said that BCCI had full faith