BCCI Ignores Rahul Dravid's Recommendation for a Revised Coaching Manual

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) did not pay heed to India U19 coach, Rahul Dravid’s recommendation of the upgradation the coaching manual.

Instead, the board persisted with the old coaching manual, as it restarts a programme to train lower level coaches. It all started three years back when the former Indian cricketer got appointed as the coach of the India ‘A’ and U19 teams.

Dravid then pointed out that the coaching manual in place at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) was outdated.

Due to the legal obligations, BCCI decided to outsource the job to a private organisation, early this year.

“There was an effort to get the job done through a private firm. But negotiations between the two did not work out,” a BCCI official told TOI.

Rahul Dravid made the recommendation before his appointment as coach­

Adding on, the BCCI office-bearer went on to state that Dravid had recommended about manual even before he got appointed for the coveted position of coach for the junior teams.

“Interestingly, Dravid had recommended upgrading the manual even before he was officially made the coach of the junior teams. Now, his first idea has been shelved,” said the official.

Also, there was an effort from the Indian board to bring out an amalgamation of a programme with Cricket Australia (CA).

However, the desired result was not put obtained, and it was decided that the job had to be outsourced.

“The board tried out an exchange programme for coaches with Cricket Australia but didn’t get desired results. Then it was decided to outsource the job, ” concluded the official.

Interestingly, it is speculated that NCA officials have not been shortlisting candidates.

“There have been allegations of bias since NCA officials aren’t individually shortlisting candidates,” said another source close to the matter.

It was realised later that due to the immobility of the matter, the previous manual was reinstated.

“Nothing was moving. The current officials in cricket operations felt that the previous manual is good enough for this level of coaching,

“There are a lot of people who had cleared Level A. The Level B programme will start soon,” concluded the source.