The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have already roped in Rahul Dravid as the head coach of the men’s team before adding VVS Laxman as the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA). Is the Ganguly era of cricket making its way back into Indian cricket? Well, the BCCI President did hint at adding former Indian cricketer and batting legend Sachin Tendulkar next to his list, although he admitted that it might be little different in this scenario.
Talking to journalist Boria Majumdar during ‘Backstage with Boaria’, Ganguly opined that there cannot be a bigger news for Indian cricket than the involvement of Sachin in the team and that he is keen to work things out amid the presence of ‘conflict of interest’.
“Sachin is obviously a bit different. He doesn’t want to be involved in all this. I’m sure with Sachin’s involvement in Indian cricket in someway, it can’t be a better news than that. In what way that obviously needs to be worked out. Because there is too much of conflict all around. Rightly or wrongly, anything and everything you do you have the word ‘conflict’ keeps jumping out of the window, some of which I find really really unrealistic. So you have to see the best way to keep the best talent involved in the game. And at some stage Sachin will also find a way to be involved in Indian cricket,” he said.
Dravid, who had previously mentored the under-19 team and India’s A team before heading the NCA, was named as the head coach earlier in October as he replaced Ravi Shastri after the forgettable T20 World Cup outing in the UAE. Under his mentorship, India have already won a T20I series against New Zealand 3-0 before beating the World Test Champions 1-0 in a two-Test series.
Meanwhile, Laxman had his first day at the NCA office on December 13. He previously was part of Indian Premier League franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad as their mentor and worked as a batting consultant for Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB)’s Vision Project. For Sachin, as mentioned by Ganguly, he is yet to be part of a coaching group although he was named as Mumbai Indians’ Icon Player in 2014 post his retirement and was appointed as a mentor ahead of the UAE leg of the 2021 IPL.
