BCCI Urged To Give New Positions To Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Ravi Shastri

Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has called on the BCCI to make better use of the experience of former Indian cricketers. He believes the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) should be given a much bigger role in matters related to Indian cricket.

At present, the CAC’s main responsibility has been to play a part in the appointment of selectors and the head coach. Gavaskar feels its role should go beyond that and include areas such as domestic and international scheduling and other key decisions concerning Indian cricket.

“There are no longer any committees in BCCI today apart from the selection committees and the CAC,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-Day. “Perhaps the time has come to expand the CAC and its brief of selecting the selectors and coach, and also look at fixtures domestic and international, and all things related to Indian cricket. There are some incredibly experienced former cricketers whose expertise can be utilised to be on this committee.”

The CAC was last reconstituted in 2022, when Ashok Malhotra, Jatin Paranjape and Sulakshana Naik were appointed to the panel. Traditionally, the committee has been involved mainly in choosing the head coach and selectors, while its current status is not entirely clear.

Gavaskar also named several former India greats who, in his view, could bring valuable experience to an expanded CAC. The names he mentioned included Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, along with Ravi Shastri, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag.

“How about names like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Ravi Shastri, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag to name a few? The President and Secretary will be there too,” he added.

Gavaskar feels a committee featuring such experienced figures could have a strong voice when dealing with the India head coach, captain and the head of the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

He also suggested that women’s cricket could have a separate advisory committee with former players playing a similar role.

“Just thinking about this gives one goosebumps. Will it ever happen, or is it just a dream?” he concluded.