Ethics officer DK Jain told by CoA to review WV Raman’s appointment as women’s team coach

Last year in December, WV Raman succeeded the controversial Ramesh Powar as Indian women cricket team’s head coach after being selected for the position by an ad-hoc panel consisting of Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy. 

Back then, the Supreme Court had only just appointed the Committee of Administrators and it was only composed of two members, namely chairman Vinod Rai and Diana Edulji. The two were unable to reach an agreement as to what process should be followed for making the decision, with the latter in strong opposition to the selection being done by the panel.

He had stated that the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) consisting of national legends Sachin Tendulkar, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman were entitled to make the choice and had been entrusted with the crucial responsibility. However, the three-man panel has not been called upon for quite a while now and its activities are as good as dead as far as the present moment is concerned. Thus, the men’s coach appointment due in a few months could also be made by the same ad-hoc panel.

Constitutionally, while Edulji’s claim about the CAC is true, it’s members Ganguly and Laxman are presently under scrutiny for holding multiple cricketing positions with different institutions. The Ethics officer believes that doing so is in violation of the Lodha Panel’s recommendations and thus the two must choose only one out of the many roles they presently serve involving the sport.

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

"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 concluded.