The CEO of the BCCI is flying all the way to Jamaica to meet the India players, led by Virat Kohli, in order to try and gauge their opinions on the new India coach.
With the battle for the post heating up after former West Indies cricketer Phil Simmons also put his name into the hat, it might seem like the Cricket Advisory Committee of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman will have a difficult task at hand, but that trip from the CEO Rahul Johri suggests otherwise.
As it sits, along with Simmons, the contenders for the India head coach post are Tom Moody, Virender Sehwag, Richard Pybus, Dodda Ganesh, Lalchand Rajput, an unnamed South African legend, if reports are to be believed, and of course Ravi Shastri.
All but one of the applicants will end up being rendered pointless if Kohli and his players' voices are seriously heard.
Everyone knows by now that Kohli's preferred choice is Shastri. Indeed, if it was up to the captain, Shastri would have remained as the India team director/coach last year as well, when Anil Kumble was preferred by Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman over the former Indian all-rounder.
While suggestions within the camp are that the players will be fine with whoever is appointed as the new Indian coach, Shastri remains their preferred choice.
It is understandable, in a way, while Kohli wants to work with Shastri again. After the disastrous relationship with Kumble, the last thing the India captain will want is to have problems with the latest appointed coach.
The fact that he knows Shastri, knows the way the commentator works and knows just what to expect in all aspects of that relationship, means Kohli will naturally want the ex-player to re-join the squad.
Now, Tom Moody or Phil Simmons or any of the other names might also end up doing a splendid job, but as Kumble found out, and in many ways rightly too, cricket is a captain's game, and what the captain wants, the captain usually gets.
Some people might not like that; some people (ok, a lot of people) might still be critical of Kohli and the players' role in Kumble's ousting, but the fact of the matter is the legendary leg-spinner wasn't a great man-manager, and the problem was in the way the BCCI handled the entire situation.
If there was a problem, which there clearly was, the two should have been brought together quietly, without any leaks to the media, to see if there was a way to mend the relationship, and then a decision should have been taken.
Instead, the BCCI publicly sent out an invitation asking for interested candidates to apply for the India coach's position, which Kumble was still at the helm and when India were getting ready to defend their ICC Champions Trophy title.
All that is now in the past, but what the Johri-flies-to-Jamaica scenario suggests is that the India players are going to have a big say on who the new coach will be.
"Yes, Rahul has left for Jamaica with permission of the Committee of Administrators (COA)," an unnamed BCCI official told PTI. "He has been instructed with the task of getting feedback from the captain and the team.
"The team's feedback will then be passed to the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) to take all parameters into account."
Now, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman are clearly capable of going with their instinct and choosing who they feel will serve Indian cricket best – just like they did with Kumble by picking their former teammate over Shastri – but if they get feedback from Kohli and the rest of the players saying they clearly want Shastri as the new coach, will they ignore that request for a second time?
Highly unlikely.
The only way, as things stand, anyone not named Ravi Shastri will be appointed as the India coach will be if Kohli suggests a different name or says something along the lines of "We have a preferred option in Shastri but M, S or PS are also good options."
Such feedback would give the CAC more options. But, if the feedback is categorical with Shastri the clear choice of the players, then those options shrink, turning Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman into mere figureheads, going through the "process" for the sake of it.
