India head coach Ravi Shastri granted 45-day contract extension after ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 by CoA

Indian head coach Ravi Shastri and his support staff were granted a 45-day extension on their contracts by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators(CoA), as per a Cricketnext report. Shastri's team includes assistant coach Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun, bowling coach and R Sridhar, fielding coach.

File image of Ravi Shastri. Reuters

“After some discussion, the CoA decided that the contracts for the support staff can be extended by 45 days on an ad-hoc basis and that interviews of the support staff should be conducted after the World Cup,” the minutes of the CoA meeting read.

Ravi Shastri was appointed head coach of the Indian cricket team in July 2017 by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which was made up of a trio of former cricketers, namely Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman.

The minutes of the meeting noted that the CAC would remain part for any further discussions, stating, 'as the CAC’s involvement is required for the purpose selecting a Head Coach, as a preliminary step, the BCCI management should speak to the members of CAC and ascertain what is their expectation vis-à-vis remuneration/compensation for their services and a draft of the terms of reference for the CAC should be prepared and circulated for CoA’s consideration'.

To further complicate matters, the CAC is no longer fully functional, after a controversy regarding the administrative roles played by the members of the CAC for teams in the IPL, leading to a potential conflict of interest.

However, Clause 24 (5) of the revised BCCI constitution states that the head coach of the Indian team can only be appointed by the CAC, leaving the BCCI in a difficult position.