BCCI officials oppose CoA’s decision to nominate Rahul Dravid for Dronacharya award
Rahul Dravid’s nomination for the Dronacharya award by Committee of Administrators has not been liked by the BCCI officials and they are against it. Officials feel that Dravid, who has coached India A and Under-19 teams for almost 3 years now, has not done enough as a coach to deserve this award.
Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators chief Vinod Rai on Thursday announced that Rahul Dravid’s name had been proposed for the Dronacharya Award. Some of the BCCI officials have not liked this decision and feel that it would be unfair to the coaches who spend hours on youngsters to fine-tune their skills. They mentioned that it is only after their childhood coaches’ hard work that the players rise to the U-19 and India A scene and hence, they are most deserving of the award.
“While there is no denying the fact that Dravid’s contribution as coach of the U-19 and India A is unparalleled, handing him the award designated for coaches is nothing but harsh on the childhood coaches of the likes of Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal among others,” Speaking to CricketNext, a senior BCCI official said.
“While Dravid’s contribution to Indian cricket is incomparable, to hand him an award that is designated for coaches would be clearly unfair on those who handpicked these kids and spent hours to
The BCCI official felt that nominating Dravid three years into his coaching career will set a wrong precedent.
“Dravid is undoubtedly a vital cog in the supply chain of Indian cricket and one of the major reasons why the bench strength in Indian cricket at present is the best in the world. But Rai’s decision to nominate the former skipper for the Dronacharya just three years into his coaching career sets a wrong precedent,” BCCI official said to CricketNext.
Explaining his stand on the situation, a BCCI official said that legends like Dravid deserve all the recognition and awards, but Dronacharya award is particularly for the coaches and must be given to them only. He felt that it would be unfair to the coaches who have toiled hard to get their players to play some good level of cricket and Dravid still has a long way to go to deserve the award.
“The BCCI has always recognized and appreciated the immense contribution of Dravid. He was the anchor for the Indian batting line-up for years altogether, perfectly complimenting the other greats of his era whose contributions have also been always recognized and appreciated by the BCCI. They were players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan and many more. For playing the game with the excellence that they did, they were awarded by the Government of India as well with awards such as the Arjuna Award, Padma Shri, Khel Ratna and even the Bharat Ratna.
“When we speak strictly in terms of the Dronacharya Award, even a great player has to compete not on the basis of his performance as a player but solely on the basis of his performance as a coach. Not even as a mentor but as a coach. Each of the players playing in the U-19 World Cup
“The contributions of a Tarak Sinha or and AN Sharma or many such others who toil at the grass-root level, to the field of coaching are honestly much greater than that of Dravid at this juncture. Dravid may surpass all of them but at this point in
"As per the guidelines, for cricket and indigenous games, not included in Olympic / Asian Games / Commonwealth Games disciplines, the selection committee will take into consideration the
Rahul Dravid started off his coaching career as a mentor for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2014. He was then signed to coach the Under-19 and India A teams in June 2015. Since then, he has guided one Under-19 to the finals and one to the title. He has provided the Indian Cricket team with quality players from the India A team. Interestingly, BCCI secretary Amitabh Chaudhary had signed the nomination before it was sent forward.
