Shastri, Dravid to join IPL commentary panel? BCCI in shock as CoA plans dual roles
Mumbai: While the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) is facing the heat for letting only two Indians – Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar – as part of the 2018 Indian Premier League (IPL) playoff commentary panel, we could well see Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid join the IPL commentary team next season.
In an eye-opening move, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) is considering to readdress the prohibition on letting Team India head coach Shastri and India A and U-19 coach Dravid as part of the commentary team in the cash-rich league.
The decision has stunned BCCI officials as under the conflict of interest clause previously, they made it clear that the two coaches cannot have a dual role since they hold top-most positions with the national cricket board.
“COA's decision to take a relook at the conflict of interest rules in order to consider allowing Shastri and Dravid to commentate in the IPL is yet another evidence of their capricious conduct. They have not been honest to their job and have looked at everything through the prism of bias and as a result, though they are supervising the administration of the BCCI, their thinking is adversarial to the board and this reeks of dishonesty in their actions,” a source was quoted as saying by to CricketNext.
Citing the example of Vinod Rai’s decision to carry on his duties despite turning 70 last month, the source slammed the CoA for dictating on its own terms.
“A prime example is their suo moto decision to disallow those disqualified from being office bearers to participate in even committee meetings of the BCCI while specifically asking N Ram to be a part of the committee even though he is above 70 and disqualified to be an office bearer. Additionally, nothing can be more hypocritical than Vinod Rai chairing the COA meeting despite having turned a sweet 70 while himself having spared no effort to disallow everyone else who is a shade over 70. This is like the behaviour of the child who wants to bat twice merely because he owns the bat,” he added.
