The BCCI office-bearers are reaching out to Rahul Dravid to take over as coach of the Indian men’s cricket team. Dravid has always politely declined, expressing a preference to work with talented youngsters instead. However, this time BCCI was unwilling to take “no” for an answer. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah had a marathon meeting with Dravid last week.
The ball is in Dravid’s court and BCCI is confident he will be the next head coach of the Indian team. “When the meeting ended, Dravid seemed content with the offer. While leaving, he informally said that he was seriously interested in the job. He will be stepping down as head of the NCA soon,” a top BCCI official said.
If all goes according to plan, Dravid will take over after the forthcoming T20 World Cup. He is likely to be offered a two-year contract, which will run till the ODI World Cup in India in 2023, at an annual salary of £1 million. However, there will still be a formal appointment process to go through.
The Supreme Courta-pproved Lodha committee had recommended that the board float an advertisement before the candidates are interviewed by a cricket advisory committee (CAC). And the board also needs to revisit the composition of the incumbent CAC which has Madan Lal, R P Singh and Sulakshana Naik.
But should Dravid choose to apply, it is extremely unlikely that the BCCI will look beyond him. “There’s very little time to carry out the entire process. Even when Dravid had re-applied for the NCA head post, he was the only applicant. A contract is being drafted at the moment and a formal advertisement will be out in a day or two. Anyway, he is already a BCCI employee. He is just being elevated. The process should be complete in a fortnight,” a BCCI official said.
For now, BCCI has refrained from formally announcing anything on the appointment even as it has got to work on the modalities. Interestingly, unlike in the past, no input seems to have been sought from the players this time.
