WV Raman appointment to be reviewed by BCCI ethics officer

appointment of WV Raman as the head coach of the Indian women’s team.

“In principle, the CoA had decided to review Raman's appointment in April but sent the matter to the former Supreme Court judge Jain only a couple of days ago,” a PTI report said on Wednesday (July 24).

Raman was appointed in December 2018 by an ad-hoc panel consisting of Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shanta Rangaswamy. His selection followed the controversial exit of interim head coach Ramesh Powar after the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. At the time, the two member CoA— Diana Edulji and Vinod Rai—failed to see eye to eye on the coach selection process.

Edulji went on to call it “unconstitutional” saying the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) consisting of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly, was originally meant to select the coach. However, since the CAC is all but inoperative at the moment, it is possible that the above-mentioned ac-hoc committee could also be involved in the process of picking the men’s team head coach— applications for which have been called in.

However, BCCI’s new constitution mentions that only the CAC has the authority to appoint a new coach, but the situation has become rather complicated. Ganguly and Laxman have been asked by Jain to choose one of the multiple roles they are currently performing. A directive from the Supreme Court is awaited on the same.

"The situation could complicate if the ad-hoc panel picks the national coach again, just like it happened in Raman's case,” a BCCI official told PTI. "The logical thing would be to wait for Supreme Court's direction in Ganguly and Laxman's case and then decide the way forward.”

"Even if the ad-hoc panel goes ahead and picks the coach again, it could be a potential case of conflict of interest as both Kapil and Shantha are also involved with the formation of the Indian players' association," the official added.