Ravi Shastri to remain Director of Indian cricket team till 2015 World Cup

The all-powerful working committee of the BCCI today retained former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri as the Director of the Indian cricke team till the ICC World Cup next year while deciding to hold its Annual General Meeting here on November 20. The working committee also decided to continue with the services of coach Duncan Fletcher till the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in February-March next year. The Indian support staff trio of Sanjay Bangar, Bharath Arun and R Sridhar were also rewarded with contracts till the end of the World Cup.

The AGM has been deferred to pave the way for president-in-exile N Srinivasan's return at the helm as the majority of BCCI members feel that he will get clean chit from the Supreme Court-apppointed Justice (Retd) Mukul Mudgal committee. Srinivasan attended the meeting as the President of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. In fact his infuence could be gauged from the fact that the house felicitated Srinivasan for being appointed as the first-ever chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in July.

According to top BCCI sources, only objection was raised by the representative of the Vidarbha Cricket Association, who wanted to know about the reason for delaying the AGM but his concern did not bother the majority of the members. The major decision taken was appointing Shastri on a full-time basis till the end of the World Cup in Australia, next year. The WC members unanimously thanked Shastri for accepting the job of Team Director for the limited overs series during the tour of England and the former India all-rounder has now accepted the offer to remain in-charge till the World Cup. Shastri will be with the team during the home series against West Indies, followed by the Test series against Australia and the triangular series following that leading upto the World Cup starting February 14. 

The BCCI has given an option to former fielding coach Trevor Penny and bowling coach Joe Dawes to fulfill their contractual obligations by being at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. They also have an option to quit if they don't want to be a part of NCA activities. The WC also decided that they will be sending a special team from North Zone to visit the state of Jammu and Kashmir to assess the loss of cricketing activities in the state due to tragic floods that ravaged the state earlier this month.

The committee will suggest necessary assistance so that normal cricketing activities can be resumed. The annual accounts for the last financial year (till 31st March, 2014) was approved by the working committee. For qualification in the India A team, it was decided that those below the age of 23 as on September 1, 2014, will be eligible and there will be no cap on the number of Ranji Trophy matches that one has played.