BCCI Cricket Advisory Committee to be expanded

BCCI’s President Anurag Thakur suggested an expansion of the Cricket Advisory Committee at the recently-concluded BCCI conclave in Dharamshala. The committee, which was recently tasked with selecting the Indian Cricket Team’s new coach could soon undergo a chance, that would see it being expanded into a High Performance Committee, if reports are to believed. If the change does take place, it would see a major expansion in personnel and scope, the details of which would be further discussed at the BCCI’s annual general meeting to be held in September. The CAC currently comprises of Indian cricket team legends Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman & Sourav Ganguly.

"There have been preliminary discussions about expanding the scope of the Cricket Advisory Committee," a source was reported saying to The Hindu on the 5th of July.

"One of the proposals is to merge the Technical Committee and the CAC into a High Performance Committee. Whether the new committee will be additionally handed over the responsibility of liaising with the India and India-A teams is still not clear," he added.

Since its inception in June of 2015, the CAC has constantly been in the news for its star studded members, but they are said to have met only once over the course of the past 12 months. The new look HPC committee would comprise of a recently-retired cricketer and have upto a total of six members, including a coach from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and a high-profile cricket operations executive from the BCCI.

BCCI’s technical committee is headed by Sourav Ganguly, but it’s purview is currently restricted to domestic cricket. Should the HPC come into inception, it is likely to monitor India's international cricket as well.

A BCCI administrator was of the opinion that recently retired cricketers should be utilised more in the decision making bodies that control the sport in the country. "What is the role of involving the greats of the game if you dont utilise them properly? The intent of expanding looks good but the purpose can be served only if you give the great cricketers a clear brief and then implement the measures suggested by them," he said.

WHAT IS CAC’s ROLE?

Currently, the CAC is expected to advise the BCCI on cricket-related matters pertaining to the international and domestic game that do not fall under the many committees currently in the BCCI. Their focus would be on improving performances overseas, creating a "pathway" to track a young cricketer's career from under-19 to India-A to the international team, arriving at a decision about the balance between T20, ODIs and Test cricket for the country's elite players, managing the bowling load for fast bowlers, means to improve the quality of Indian spinners, education and life skills for young cricketers.