Former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan backed the BCCI’s decision to extend Rahul Dravid’s contract as head coach of the Indian cricket team, saying that continuity is very important to achieve success.
Notably, the Indian cricket team finds itself at a bit of a crossroads after finishing as runners-up in the Cricket World Cup 2023. The next major challenge on the horizon for Team India is the 2024 T20 World Cup in June.
People are getting curious about whether it's time for new faces in the white-ball formats, and even the head coach position was up for speculation as Dravid completed his first stint with the team.
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However, BCCI extended Dravid’s contract as the head coach of the Indian cricket team to end all the reports, and Zaheer welcomed this move when he was asked whether the board did the right thing.
Zaheer Khan was asked by a user, “Do you think it's the right call and will it be easy for the coach to instill belief to bounce back in 6 months for an ICC trophy?”
To which, the former Indian pacer said on Cricbuzz: “Just a general view on this scenario. We've been talking about so many captains, so many vice-captains. All the things which are happening around. With so much of cricket also happening, you need that continuity factor, which is going to be very, very important. You need that stability and how you are going to achieve that stability when you have so many moving parts is having something constant.”
The 2011 World Cup winner further explained, “Whoever becomes the coach needs to be constant and should maintain that continuity for a while, so that all the processes are followed and communicated in that regard. You form a nice setup with regards to the higher management in BCCI, to the selectors, to the NCA, to the Indian team, and captains across formats.”
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He signed off by saying, “With so much happening, it does not matter, who that individual is, but that individual needs to have that full responsibility of all the formats and planning around it. Getting everybody on same page so that the system is robust as we are moving ahead. Usually, that continuity is maintained in Indian cricket through one captain being there for all the formats. But the demand now is such that certain players need to ready for certain tournaments but that continuity needs to be there through the coach.”
Notably, BCCI secretary Jay Shah recently said that Dravid’s contract was just extended; they haven’t yet finalized it, and the length of his contract would be decided after the ongoing tour of South Africa.
(With Cricbuzz Inputs)
