Now Shastri wants Sachin as batting consultant

Photo: AFP New Delhi: India head coach Ravi Shastri now wants batting great Sachin Tendulkar to work with the national team as a consultant, provided it is not a case of conflict of interest. Shastri expressed the desire to have Tendulkar on board during Monday's meeting with the BCCI special committee comprising acting president CK Khanna, CEO Rahul Johri, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary and Committee Of Administrators member Diana Edulji. Tendulkar is part of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) which picked Shastri as the coach. The special committee made it clear that any role with the national team, be it full-time or as a consultant, has to be clear of conflict of interest. "Ravi put forward the idea of having Sachin on board as a consultant for a very short period. But the committee promptly reminded him about the conflict of interest clause," a member of the committee, who did not wish to be identified as the information is not meant to be public, told PTI. If Tendulkar does accept the role, it would mean that he would have to let go of his various other commitments including the IPL. "And expecting someone to be around for an extremely short period and leave his other professional commitments is asking for a bit too much," said the member. Similar is the case with Zaheer, who wants be around with the team for about 25 days in a year and continue with his other engagements including the IPL. "I doubt for 25 days in a year, you would want to forgo all your other commitments," reckoned the member. While Shastri's support staff was announced on Monday, there is still lack of clarity over the consulting role of Zaheer and Dravid, who is already coaching the India junior teams. Bharat Arun, who is back as bowling coach, can no longer be part of IPL franchise RCB and TNPL side VB Thiruvallur Veeran due to conflict of interest. The other members of the staff are assistant coach Sanjay Bangar and fielding coach R Sridhar, who have been retained till the 2019 World Cup.