Rahul Dravid puts conflict issue to rest

MUMBAI: The BCCI announced on Friday that India 'A' and Under-19 coach Rahul Dravid will continue in the same capacity for the next two years. The former India batting legend, who was first appointed to this position two years ago, will receive an estimated salary of Rs six crore per annum and his renewed contract will now run until 2019.
Dravid's renewed contract is for a total of 24 months (entire 12 months of the year) starting now, unlike the earlier arrangement when he was engaged by the BCCI for 10 months in a year and was free for the remaining two months to pursue his arrangements with the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises.
BCCI and Dravid reaching a decision on this matter by agreeing to such a deal will have far reaching implications in the Indian cricket fraternity where the term 'conflict' has been the buzzword these last few years. Dravid, in the process, will move away from all his IPL obligations.
Among the many aspects of this arrangement, the primary ones are the fact that Dravid has indeed shown inclination to work at the junior level in Indian cricket, which is laudable. Alternately, the BCCI - recognizing what he brings to the table - has decided to remunerate the former India captain adequately for opting out of the IPL.
TOI had reported on June 14 that the BCCI -with the Committee of Administrators (CoA) pushing the matter forward -was all set to determine what exactly constituted the term 'conflict' in Indian cricket.
"A position with the national team, in whichever capacity, has to be considered 'sanctimonious'. It's a choice one has to make -work with the national team and the National Cricket Academy for an entire year and draw a handsome salary or draw the same salary working with an IPL franchise, if you're getting it, and use the remaining time to pursue whatever off-field interests you may have. But you can't be doing both," a senior BCCI official had told this paper.
To this effect, Dravid has chosen the privileges that come by way of coaching the national team.
On June 10, Dravid had written a letter to the CoA, putting the ball in BCCI's court, by asking them to clarify whet her his dual roles as coach of the junior national teams and as mentor to an IPL franchise were conflicted. The answer to that query has come along with this development.
In the process, the CoA and BCCI have cleared the confusion for scores of individuals in Indian cricket who function as coaches, mentors, support staff, cricket managers, selectors, talent-finders, technical advisers, business partners and more with the IPL franchises while being associated with the senior or junior national teams, National Cricket Academy (NCA), zonal academies and more.
The likes of batting coach Sanjay Bangar, fielding coach R Sridhar, video analyst Ashish Tuli, trainer Shanker Basu and physio Patrick Farhart, alongside scores of others associated with the various academies -and their future replacements -can now sort out their priorities going forward.
The BCCI also needs to clarify here if coaches employed with state associations also need to follow any particular criteria or will be free to work with the IPL franchises, considering the T20 league is also a domestic tournament run by the board.
We wish him the best: DD
The Delhi Daredevils franchise bid goodbye to its mentor Dravid on Friday. In a statement, the Daredevils said: "It was an honour and privilege to have Rahul Dravid as mentor of the Delhi Daredevils over the last two years. We truly enjoyed our association and nurtured some great young talent together. We are sad that he will not continue with us as mentor as he chooses to serve India A and India Under-19 as a coach. Being a true servant of cricket, he believes he still has a lot to give back to the game and help nurture young India talent. We wish him all the best."