Now, Ravi Shastri will ‘oversee and guide’ the Indian cricket team during the limited-overs leg of the England tour. This is an interesting development. Shastri has no coaching experience and has led the team in only one Test match, 26 years ago. It can be argued that he is the Board of Control for Cricket India’s non-secret agent who will keep a close watch on coach Duncan Fletcher.
Much like Sunil Gavaskar, Shastri has positioned himself as an independent observer with unquestioned integrity. He loves to play the myriad roles of employee, arbitrator, critic, accuser, commentator, administrator, and in times of deep crises like now, angel rescuer.
like a powered para-glider, he motors between these roles with effortless ease, shirking off one garb and putting on another. Calling the Indian players “glam boys”, as he did recently, may not be a great start; he himself, it can be argued, was something of a ‘glam boy' in his time.