In what will come as a huge relief for former Indian captain Rahul Dravid, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) on Tuesday cleared his appointment as Head of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). They have ruled that there is "no conflict of interest" case against the former India captain.
Lt General Ravi Thogde, who is the new member of the CoA, said the ball is now in the court of BCCI Ombudsman-cum-ethics officer DK Jain. "There is no conflict on Rahul's case. He has got a notice and we have cleared his appointment. We had seen no conflict, but if the Ombudsman finds any conflict, we will give our response to the Ombudsman stating why we found no conflict," Thogde said after a CoA meeting.
"After that he (Ombudsman) has to consider. It's a process and it will continue."
Dravid will head NCA
Dravid was in hot soup when a notice was slapped around the conflict of interest case after his appointment at NCA as he is also an employee of India Cements which owns the Chennai Super Kings franchise in the Indian Premier League.
Thogde had previously reiterated on the point that the NCA needs to be of an international standard under Dravid. "There are a few things that need to be done at the NCA. There are shortage of grounds and staff, including coaches. There has to be continuity."
"Someone of Dravid's stature will have to ensure that the NCA is of international standard. He has given his vision and we are fully in support of his vision. We will work together," Thogde said.
Apart from the conflict of interest story, the CoA also discussed the upcoming elections as well as the appointment of the head coach of the Indian cricket team. "We discussed about the upcoming elections. There were discussions with (Electoral Officer) N Gopalaswami and certain things have been resolved. A code has been drawn out," Thogde said.
Six candidates have been shortlisted for the job - Mike Hesson, Tom Moody, Robin Singh, Lalchand Rajput, Phil Simmons and Ravi Shastri. While the head coach will be picked by the Kapil Dev-led CAC, the support staff of the team (batting, bowling and fielding coaches) will be picked by chief selector MSK Prasad.
