To get two-year exclusive BCCI contract, will have to suffer cut in income; quits IPL job

NEW DELHI : Rahul Dravid has chosen to serve India over his IPL franchise, Delhi Daredevils. The former captain has decided to continue as the head coach of India A and Under-19 teams for the next two years, meaning that he would forego his role as the Daredevils’ mentor. Dravid’s previous contract as the India and Under-19 coach ran for 10 months, and he was associated with Delhi Daredevils for the remaining two months. But his new contract with the Indian cricket board (BCCI) will run for two full-year terms (12 months each year). The development is seen as BCCI conforming to the recommendations of the Lodha Committee, which suggested complete 12-month terms for Indian cricket teams’ coaching and support staff personnel. This was to avoid the conflict of interest situations arising out of the coach or support staff working with the national team for 10 months and mentoring an IPL franchise in the remaining two months. In fact, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) had also been pressing for a two-year contract for the coaches and support staff. Recently, CoA member Ramachandra Guha, in his scathing resignation letter to the committee, had raised Dravid’s conflict of interest issue. This had led to Dravid approaching both BCCI and CoA to clarify on the subject since Guha’s letter had raised questions over his integrity. Dravid’s tenure as coach had ended on March 31 this year. BCCI didn’t call for fresh interviews as planned earlier since it chose to invoke a clause in Dravid’s previous contract which allowed an automatic extension of his contract.