BCCI President Sourav Ganguly invites NCA Director Rahul Dravid for a meeting in Mumbai

With injuries plaguing the Indian dressing room and even affecting stalwarts like Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sourav Ganguly, the President of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has invited his former teammate and current Director of the NCA (National Cricket Academy), Rahul Dravid to discuss the issue in a meeting in Mumbai.

Recently, the NCA had refused to conduct Jasprit Bumrah’s fitness test and had also failed in diagnosing Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s sports hernia, even after multiple scans. Bhuvneshwar’s case went out of hand to an extent where the pacer will have to undergo a surgery.

According to Times of India, these events had put both, the ace governing body, BCCI, and the NCA in a bad light. Following this, Jay Shah, the secretary of BCCI had called for a relevant set of reports of Bhuvneshwar’s diagnostics to be sent to him, while Sourav took control of Jasprit’s case. But, to address this issue on a broader stage, known for his decisive nature, Sourav called for a meeting with Rahul Dravid. Even in the past, cases of players like Barinder Sran and Wriddhiman Saha had been mishandled by the NCA and they had faced a backlash from the cricket community.

What else will be discussed in the meeting?

Apart from this, the conflict of interest case of NCA’s chief-psychotherapist, Ashish Kaushik is likely to be a part of the agenda too. Kaushik’s holding of shares of YOS (sports medicine clinic) after his appointment in the support staff, presence of N. Srikanth, his partner at YOS, in the interview panel of the support staff and the lack of details regarding the transfer of shares are likely to be there in the talking points.

The meeting will also be addressing the appointment of the board’s new Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC). The CAC will be a single function committee, with the duty to pick India’s senior selection committee. As it has been made clear previously by Ganguly, it will be disbanded after this. Potentially, instead of the three-man committee, it could also be a two-person affair.

Given their connect in while together in the past holding the command of the Indian side, with Sourav being the captain and Dravid his deputy, it is sure that this meeting will have some fruitful outcome, taking Indian cricket towards a brighter future.