In his long career, Vikram Rathour has donned many hats. A prolific scorer in the domestic circuit, the former Punjab cricketer has served as one of the national selectors in the past. And now, the MSK Prasad-led selection committee has recommended the 50-year-old Rathour as the top choice for the batting coach role in the Indian team.
Rahul Dravid, Director of Cricket at National Cricket Academy (NCA) had earlier praised Rathour’s coaching abilities. But his candidature as a batting coach for NCA and India A was thwarted in the past by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) on the ‘conflict of interest’ clause.
On Thursday, Prasad and BCCI CEO Rahul Johri said that Rathour will have to give up all other profiles in order to take up the new role.
READ| Rathour preferred to Sanjay Bangar; Arun, Sridhar retain job
“We will ask him to declare if he has any conflict. Anyway, all the staff of Indian team cannot do any other business, so he will have to give up in order to take up this responsibility. If he decides to give up everything else, then there will be no conflict…,” Johri said.
Earlier, when Rathour had applied for NCA batting consultant and U-19 batting coach’s position, his application was put on hold as his brother-in-law Ashish Kapoor is the chairman of the U-19 selection committee.
But Johri said that since the profile is different this time, there shouldn’t be much of a difficulty. “This was discussed at the CoA meeting too. If his brother in law is the selector of junior team, this is the batting coach of men’s senior team, so don’t think there is any conflict,” Johri said.
Now that Rathour has been announced as the first choice, he — along with the other candidates — will be called to discuss the next step. “We will call each of them, inform them officially and also ask them if there’s any other position held by them. Then they have to do away with that. Once they confirm that, we will do the rest of the formalities,” Johri said, adding that the new coaching staff will start their duties in September when the home season begins.
India plays South Africa next month for T20Is and Tests.
Rathour — who played six Tests and seven One-day Internationals between 1996-1997 — pipped Sanjay Bangar for the job.
“He was the director of Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, he was also the coach of Punjab Cricket Association and he was also the assistant coach of Kings XI Punjab, so he has got enough experience behind him. Apart from that, he has been doing a lot of assignments with the NCA, so we are convinced with his skill sets, so we thought that he would be our first preference as of now,” Prasad reasoned.
While Rathour looks set for the big role, his appointment will only be confirmed once the ‘conflict of interest’ issues are cleared.
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