The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Saturday announced that Rahul Dravid has been retained as captain for the team's next three tours.
"The working committee has directed the selection committee to send a young team to Bangladesh under an experienced captain. The selection committee after discussions has appointed Rahul Dravid as captain," BCCI treasurer N Srinivasan said in Mumbai.
"By retaining Dravid as captain, we want to send out a signal that there is no cause for panic," he added.
Dravid, who faced a lot of criticism following India's first-round exit from the World Cup, will lead the side for next month's tour of Bangladesh as well as the trips to Ireland and England later in the year.
Former India captain Ravi Shastri was confirmed as the manager for the tour to Bangladesh. It was further decided that Venkatesh Prasad will be the bowling coach and Robin Singh, the fielding coach for the tour.
The BCCI statement:
- With a view to strengthen domestic cricket, efforts will be made to ensure that all Test and ODI cricketers play in the Irani Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Challenger series and some Ranji Trophy Matches.
- Every Association will be directed to prepare fast and lively wickets for domestic tournaments.
- BCCI will do away with Home and Away rotation and allot venues for Irani Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, Ranji Trophy semi-finals and final and One day All India Knockout.
- It was decided that all affiliated units should start their own State Academies by April 2009. These Academies would be linked to the National Cricket Academy for the purpose of uniformity in coaching.
- It was decided to scrap the present Zonal representation in the Senior and Junior Selection Committees. BCCI will appoint Selectors on a full time basis based upon the eligibility criteria which would include stature as a player, selection experience etc. They will be remunerated suitably and appointed for a two year term. BCCI will take steps to propose necessary amendments to the Constitution to give effect to the above decision.
- Regular and frequent Under - 19 and India 'A' tours to Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa and West Indies will be undertaken.
- The Working Committee has directed the Selection Committee to send a young team to Bangladesh under an experienced captain. The selection committee after discussions has appointed Rahul Dravid as captain for India tour to Bangladesh, Ireland and England.
- BCCI will appoint a permanent manager for the Indian Team for a two year term. The Board will also appoint a permanent Media Manager for a two year term.
- Notice will be issued to Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh under Rule 38 of the Memorandum and the Rules and Regulations of the Board asking for an explanation for their comments made to the Media.
- The Working Committee approved the Performance based Payment to the players and decided to do away with the present gradation for Retainership. Apart from the payment, the following points would form a part of the contract.
- A player will endorse not more than 3 sponsors or products. No Sponsor can contract more than 2 players. The players will not be allowed to do any sponsor related events 15 days before the tour and also during the tour.
- Before every tour, all the contracted players have to undergo a fitness test and only those who fulfill the benchmarks will be considered for selection.
- No player shall have exclusive contracts with electronic or print media. Only the captain can write a column or talk to the media but not exclusively.
- The players shall take prior approval of the Board before signing any endorsement contract and will submit a copy of the agreement to the Board. All the players shall submit a copy of the existing contracts with sponsors to the Board.
- All the players will have to play a stipulated number of Domestic matches when not playing for India.
- In the event of injury to the player, the Board will compensate him the match fees that he would have earned for a maximum period of six months.
- The Working Committee decided to form a Cricket Advisory committee consisting of the following ex-captains: Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, M A K Pataudi, Chandu Borde, Ravi Shastri, Krish Srikkanth, S Venkataraghavan under the chairmanship of BCCI president Sharad Pawar and will include all the office bearers of the Board.
- The working committee appointed Ravi Shastri as the manager for the India's tour to Bangladesh next month. It was further decided that Venkatesh Prasad will be the Bowling coach and Robin Singh, the fielding coach for the tour.
