Internet Desk: Team India’s Head Coach Ravi Shastri got his wishes fulfilled on Tuesday as BCCI officially announced the name of Bharat Arun as the bowling coach for the Indian team. Another favourite of Shastri, Sanjay Bangar was promoted as the assistant coach by the board. Among the other support staffs who were retained on Tuesday were fielding coach R Sridhar, Physio Pattrick Farhat and trainer Shankar Basu. The appointments were made for a period of two years, till the 2019 World Cup in England.
After the meeting in a press conference Shastri welcomed both Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan on board as batting and bowling consultants and said that the contracts of the duo will be finalised by the BCCI officials.
“I’ve spoken to both, as recent as three to four days ago and they are two fantastic cricketers of India. Their inputs will be invaluable. They will be on board once they have spoken to the authorities concerned,” said Shastri when asked about Dravid and Zaheer’s contracts.
There was a lot of speculation during the last few days, whether former India bowler Zaheer Khan will get the nod or not for bowling coach. The Delhi Daredevils captain’s name was proposed by the Cricket Advisory Committee to take the role of bowling consultant. The CAC included former cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Gnaguly and VVS Laxman.
Shastri has made it clear that while he is happy to have the services of former India stars, he wants full-time assistant coaches according to his choice and not that of the CAC.
“The BCCI can certainly bring in guys like Zaheer and Dravid as consultants from time to time. Their experience is invaluable. But as far as a full-time support is concerned, I will need to decide on it because it is me who will be working with them for next two years,” an official clarified.
But the former Team India Director got his way as he wanted to continue his second stint with the support staff he has worked earlier with. The four member committee comprising of acting BCCI President CK Khanna, secretary Amitabh Choudhury, CoA members Vinod Rai and Diana Eduljee met the India coach today at the Cricket Centre in Mumbai to officially announce the names of the support staff.