MUMBAI: As was being speculated since the last few days, Sanjay Bangar became the scapegoat for India’s exit in the semifinals of the World Cup, even as the entire coaching staff survived the axe.
On Thursday evening, former India opener Vikram Rathour replaced Sanjay Bangar as India’s new batting coach, while Bharat Arun and R Sridhar were expectedly retained as bowling and fielding coaches respectively.
The senior national selection committee headed by MSK Prasad recommended three names each for all the support staff positions. The top names in each category will be appointed after signing Conflict of Interest declarations.
Rathour, 50, played six Tests and seven ODIs in 1996. His Test average was an abysmal 13.10, and he didn’t score a single hundred or fifty, with his highest score being 44. In the ODIs, his average was 27.57, and he hit two fifties. Though he scored 11,473 runs in 146 games @49.66, with 33 hundreds to be considered a domestic heavyweight for Punjab, he couldn’t replicate his success in international cricket. Till 2016, he was a part of the senior selection committee, which was headed by Sandeep Patil.
According to sources, Rathour’s case was being promoted heavily by a section in the BCCI, which reflected in the fact that the media had begun terming his presentations and CV as ‘impressive.’ He was already being touted as the favourite for the position. The only glitch here is that twice in the past, Rathour’s application for a job in the BCCI has been rejected on conflict of interest grounds.
He had earlier applied for being NCA batting consultant and U-19 batting coach, but his application was put on hold as his brother-in-law, Ashish Kapoor, is the chairman of the U-19 selection committee.
So did Rathour’s alleged conflict of interest come up for discussion? “We will ask them (all the selected candidates) to declare any conflict. In any case, all the staff that works for the Indian team cannot do any other job, so they will have to give up everything else in order to take up this responsibility. And if he (Rathour) decides to give up everything else, then there will be no conflict,” said BCCI CEO Rahul Johri.
However, when asked that Rathour’s alleged conflict of interest is of a different type, and related to his brother-in-law being a junior national selector, Johri said: “This was discussed at the Committee of Administrators (CoA) meeting also. Now, his brother-in-law is a chief selector of the junior team. This is the post of the batting coach of men’s senior team, so we do not think that there is any conflict.”
Quizzed on why the batting coach was sacked even as the bowling and fielding coaches were retained, Prasad said there was a need to introduce “freshness” in the department.
“If you see the last five years, there is some amount of improvement. Looking ahead, with the Test Championship and two T20 World Cups coming up, we thought there should be some freshness in that department, so that’s the reason why we went ahead with Rathour as the first choice,” Prasad said.
Prasad asserted that Bangar wasn’t made the scapegoat for India’s World Cup semifinal loss against New Zealand. “I don’t agree with this. We heard his presentation. Let anybody say anything. We have conducted the interviews in the most honest and fair manner. We felt that Rathour was our first preference,” said the chief selector.
The only consolation for Bangar is that the selection committee rated him just below Rathour, while former England batsman Mark Ramprakash was third. All the other coaches in the panel’s top three list will be offered a job at the NCA, provided Rahul Dravid gives his green signal.
It does seem that the team management, read coach Ravi Shastri, has had their way in the selection of the support staff, though Prasad stressed that his panel had taken these calls independently.
Interestingly, even arguably the best fielder of all time, Jonty Rhodes, failed to dislodge Sridhar from his post as India’s fielding coach for the next two years. Rhodes, in fact, didn’t even make it to the top three in the list of preferred coaches!
“We are convinced with skill sets of R Sridhar. He is supposed to be one of the best fielding coach in the world today. He has transformed India into a wonderful fielding unit. So, there was no second thought with regard to Sridhar. We don’t see Jonty fitting in there (at Nos 2 or 3), because those roles are more for India A level and NCA,” said Prasad.
Apart from Bangar, administrative manager Sunil Subramaniam, who was in the news recently for his alleged misbehaviour with top diplomats of the Indian government during India’s ongoing tour of West Indies lost his job too. Subramaniam was replaced by Girish Dongre. Nitin Patel, who was with the Mumbai Indians and was a part of the support staff during India’s 2011 World Cup campaign, is back as the Team India physio.
WhatsApp us