Ricky Ponting, right, is the head coach of IPL franchise Delhi Capitals and will also be Australia's assistant... Read More

MUMBAI: The Indian team management, gearing up for the 2019 ICC World Cup in England, isn’t very happy with its cricket board’s conflicting policy on overseas staff being hired in the Indian Premier League ( IPL ).

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The reasons for discontent are multiple. Picture this: India’s opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan plays in the IPL for a franchise that is being coached by Australia’s national assistant coach Ricky Ponting and the team analyst working alongside Ponting, Sriram Somayajula, also serves the Sri Lankan national team in the same capacity.

“Imagine the extent to which they understand Dhawan the cricketer. What clicks for him… what doesn’t... It’s clearly unhealthy. Rishabh, Prithvi, Shreyas — see the amount of analysis they’re being able to gather” is how Team India sees the composition.

Another example of the same is Cricket South Africa’s Chennai-based analyst Prasanna Agoram working with the Kings XI Punjab.

“The amount of work Prasanna has put in with the South African national team is tremendous. We got to know about it first hand when we visited South Africa last year. Now, this guy gets to spend two months right here in the Indian domestic circuit just weeks before he’ll accompany South Africa to the World Cup. This just doesn’t sound correct,” say some members of the Indian cricket team.

There’s no grouse so troubling that the players intend to approach the BCCI or the Committee of Administrators (CoA) right away. Yet, there’s a nagging thought behind this perception that’s only growing.

“We don’t think it’s fine for Australia’s national assistant coach (Ponting) to be spending time with the Indian team opener just weeks ahead of a World Cup campaign, or even otherwise with a franchise that includes India's four Test cricketers. Of course, the IPL’s a free market but some lines have to be drawn,” they add.

That boils down to a long-standing question if IPL, indeed, is a free market as the players believe it to be. Because if it were, then players who aren’t picked by franchises at the mega auctions conducted by the BCCI, or coaches who work in the vast Indian domestic circuit throughout the year, should be allowed to find employment in leagues overseas.

“The BCCI has its policies. It doesn’t matter who put them in place – whether it was the old establishment or the Supreme Court or this present administration (COA); but the point is that IPL doesn’t have a uniform policy in place. There can’t be apples and oranges,” believes the Team India camp.

Many in the cricket fraternity were left surprised on Wednesday when Delhi Capitals' mentor Sourav Ganguly – who is being queried for potential conflict of interest – said his colleague at the franchise, Ponting, should be the coach of the Indian national team.

“That’s definitely not conflict, right? Conflict is when Rahul Dravid associates himself with a franchise while working with the junior Indian national team. That’s how weird Indian cricket administration and its policies have become,” say two junior India players who earned their stripes under Dravid.

Their contention is simple: “If players like Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman are not associated with IPL, whose loss is it? Look at Pravin Amre. He’s one of India’s finest batting coaches. Just because he wants to keep his IPL job, he can’t work with any other state team or NCA. But Tom Moody can coach Sunrisers and head the Caribbean Premier League too.”

The one clear grouse here is “why can’t the BCCI have a uniform policy? If Sanjay Bangar – who is the assistant Team India coach – can’t work with IPL, then so shouldn’t a foreign (assistant) coach. Simple. Isn’t that how it works globally in, let’s say, football?” say players.

