Reports | Vikram Rathourâs appointment as India âAâ coach borders on âconflict of interestâ
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Vikram Rathour is set to be appointed as the new coach of the India âAâ team for the home series against Sri Lanka despite claims of âconflict of interestâ doing rounds in the media. CoA had earlier rescinded Rathourâs appointment as batting coach of the junior national team on the same issue.
Three months earlier, Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) made a decision that former India cricketer and selector Vikram Rathour will not be appointed as batting coach for the junior national teams due to a conflict of interest. However, the latter is all set to be appointed as head coach of India âAâ cricket team ahead of the home series against Sri Lanka starting later this month.
BCCI's operations team looks set to appoint Rathour as coach despite CoA head Vinod Raiâs insistence that "if Rathour is conflicted, there is no way he can be appointed". The former India cricketer is a relative of Under-19 selector Ashish Kapoor and is also a cousin of former BCCI president Anurag Thakur.
"In case of Kapoor, it's a clear case of conflict. In Thakur's case, there's no harm in being related but then, COA can't have apples and oranges policy when it comes to pointing or ignoring conflict cases," an inside source told TOI.
Apart from that, Rathour is also the director of coaching at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association and the coach of Himachal's senior Ranji team. There are certain senior members in the board who want the Supreme Court-appointed ethics officer/ombudsman to make the final call of Rathourâs appointment.
"Tractable, intractable, whatever that term is â let the ombudsman take the call. The last time, it was being presented as if Rahul Dravid wanted Rathour on board. This time, some other route is being taken. So, basically, people will find some way or the other to trespass conflict, is it?" sources added.
