Newly-appointed Indian team head coach Ravi Shastri has expressed his desire to include batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar on board of his back-room staff as a consultant. Shastri reportedly communicated his wish during a meeting with the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) special committee comprising acting president CK Khanna, CEO Rahul Johri, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and Committee Of Administrators member Diana Edulji on Tuesday.
However, the special committee made it clear that any role with the national team, be it full-time or as a consultant, has to be clear of conflict of interest.
It is to be noted that Tendulkar is a part of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) which picked Shastri as the coach.
"Ravi put forward the idea of having Sachin on board as a consultant for a very short period. But the committee promptly reminded him about the conflict of interest clause," a member of the committee said on condition of anonymity.
If Tendulkar does accept the role, it would mean that he would have to let go of his various other commitments including the one in the Indian Premier League. Tendulkar is the mentor of the three-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians.
"And expecting someone to be around for an extremely short period and leave his other professional commitments is asking for a bit too much," said the member.
Zaheer Khan is also facing similar issue as the former pacer wants be around with the team for about 25 days in a year and continue with his other engagements, including the IPL.
"I doubt for 25 days in a year, you would want to forgo all your other commitments," reckoned the member.
While Shastri's support staff was announced on Tuesday, there is still lack of clarity over the consulting role of Zaheer and Rahul Dravid, who is already coaching the India Under-19 and India A teams.
Bharat Arun, who is back as bowling coach, can no longer be part of IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore and TNPL side VB Thiruvallur Veeran due to conflict of interest. The other members of the staff are assistant coach Sanjay Bangar, fielding coach R Sridhar, physiotherapist Patrick Farhat and conditioning coach Shankar Basu, who have been retained till the 2019 World Cup.
