Ravi Shastri, one of India’s finest coaches and under whom India won a test series in Australia for the first time ever, has revealed that there were some people in the board who wanted him not to get the job of the head coach in 2017 when the position got vacant due to the resignation of Anil Kumble.
Ravi Shastri was team India’s director from 2014 to 2016 before Anil Kumble was roped in as the head coach. It was a decision that was taken by the Committee of Administrators, who were put in place by the apex court of the country, to implement the Lodha Committee recommendations.
Shastri was appointed as the director of cricket in 2014 by the previous BCCI administration which was sacked and the Committee of administrators took over, which then decided to invite applications for the post of the head coach and picked Kumble.
The post of director remained vacant as a requirement was not sought for the position and Shastri, who had left his media job to take up the director’s position a couple of years back, found himself in no man’s land. However, he was required by the board again only after a gap of 12 months.
My reappointment was egg on their faces: Ravi Shastri
Recalling that phase, Shastri said when he was getting reappointed in 2017, a section in the board didn’t want him because they were the same people who had got him out of his job a few months ago, but his reappointment was “egg on their faces”.
In an exclusive interview with Times of India, Shastri stressed the fact that he worked through negativities for the whole of his second tenure, as some people who were around the set-up actually wanted India to fail just for the management to be criticised.
But Shastri said it didn’t bother him because he knew they were just insecure people and one could only laugh more and more at their insecurities.
