Questions raised about Dhoni’s A grade contract
New Delhi: Indian cricket’s ‘superstar culture’, unaddressed conflict of interest issues and BCCI’s ‘insensitive’ handling of coach Anil Kumble – noted historian Ramachandra Guha has opened a Pandora’s box in his resignation letter to the committee of administrators (CoA). Guha was a member of the CoA till his resignation became public Thursday. The others remaining in the panel are Vinod Rai, Vikram Limaye and Diana Eduljee.
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Guha in his resignation to the Supreme Court has cited ‘personal reasons’. However, the seven-page letter written by him to Rai who is the head of the CoA, has raised a number of uncomfortable issues.
Guha has spared no one and has questioned skipper Virat Kohli’s role in selection of coach, besides alleging conflict of interest on part of Sunil Gavaskar, Sourav Ganguly, and Rahul Dravid.
The letter also questioned the move to give former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni a Grade-A BCCI Central Contract despite not playing in all the three formats. Dhoni retired from Tests in 2014.
Guha has expressed his disgust to Rai over the ‘extremely insensitive and unprofessional manner’ in which the speculated Kohli-Kumble fallout has been handled by BCCI CEO (Rahul Johri) and BCCI office-bearers (Amitabh Chaudhary). He accused the CoA of ‘silence and inaction’, claiming that the panel was ‘unfortunately being complicit in this regard’.
In his parting shot, he recommended Javagal Srinath’s name as his replacement as a former cricketer in the CoA.
Guha has directly questioned Kohli’s ‘veto power’ on deciding matters like appointment of a coach and even the commentators’ panel. It also makes it clear that Kumble-Kohli rift is a reality.
In the letter, Guha wrote: “If indeed the captain and the Head Coach were not getting along, why was not this attended to as soon as the Australia series was over in late March? Why was it left until the last minutes, when a major international tournament was imminent and when the uncertainty would undermine the morale and ability to focus of the coach, the captain and the team.”
“And surely giving senior players the impression that they may have a veto power over the coach is another example of superstar culture gone berserk? Such a veto power is not permitted to any other top level professional team in any other sport in any other country.”
PTI
