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Who needs Sunny, Shastri?

It is early days, and too often in the past, teams and individuals wearing India colors have shown great promise only to fade away for no apparent reason. That said, there seems to be something about this collective, this group of players, we haven't seen before; if the Board can insulate this lot from the mandatory politics, create an atmosphere where they can concentrate on playing cricket the best way they know how without being subjected to extraneous pulls and pressures, we could well be at the birth of something big.

Then again, expecting the Board to do the right thing is, has been throughout the tenure of this administration, a fool's errand. Consider this: India is "unlikely" to have a coach for the ODIs against Australia. And then it gets better:

The BCCI advertised for the post of coach on leading cricket board websites on August 27 and set September 15 as the deadline for interested candidates to write in. Cricinfo has learnt that the BCCI has received close to 20 applications in all, both from India and abroad, for the post.

However, the committee constituted to decide on the next course of action to be taken in appointing the coach may not be able to meet on September 27, the date earlier fixed for this purpose. The committee - comprising former Indian captains Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and S Venkataraghavan, the board secretary, Niranjan Shah, the joint secretary, Mohinder Pandove and the treasurer, N Srinivasan - was constituted to pick the next coach. However, Gavaskar and Shastri are both in South Africa, commentating on the ICC World Twenty20, and are only likely to return to India on September 26 or 27.

Why did we not have a coach before the England tour? Because the board made a mess of the Graham Ford interview and Gavaskar helped it along by tossing in the name of John Emburey, out of the blue, into the pot. Why did we not pick a coach during the two months when India was in England? Because Gavaskar and Shastri were busy commentating on the England tour, and didn't have time to review applications. Why don't we have a coach for the Australia series? Because, you guessed it, Shastri and Gavaskar are busy...

Would it be fair to ask why two former players who clearly put their own personal commitments ahead of the team's concerns and urgent requirements continue to be part of this committee? If commentating is their concern, fair enough, no one grudges them that--but why should Indian cricket be held to ransom because of these two?