During and after the tour of Australia, reports and sourced leaks from the Indian dressing room regarding players, coaches, relationships and other matters have become increasingly rampant. In the middle of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, reports from the dressing room suggesting a tumultuous relationship between the coaching staff and the players created headlines, while post the series, the 10-point diktat imposed by BCCI was also reported by journalists first. Now, the appointment of former domestic run machine Sitanshu Kotak as batting coach has also been reported before any official announcement from the BCCI.
Speaking on this, Aakash Chopra has urged the BCCI to be more proactive, so that rumours, reports and source-based leaks can lessen within Indian cricket.
“The biggest news is that Sitanshu Kotak has become India’s batting coach. He has been added to the coaching staff. The BCCI might announce it officially after some time. How does all this news come out? Why doesn’t the BCCI announce it themselves? If you start telling proactively, these source-based news might end,” Chopra suggested, speaking on his YouTube channel.
Some of the reports have also been shut down by players and support staff. The most recent example of this was Jasprit Bumrah, who took to social media to put to bed a report that he had been advised bed rest to heal his back injury.
On the other hand, following the report of rift in the dressing room and the rumoured cause of Ravichandran Ashwin‘s retirement, head coach Gautam Gambhir had stated that conversations held within the team should stay that way.
Chopra, meanwhile, pointed out that Sitanshu Kotak was a man of peculiar idiosyncrasies.
“He (Kotak) used to stop when someone moved close to the sight screen or in the dressing room. He had a unique playing style as well. He was a run-machine. He used to irritate the opposing team a lot with his idiosyncrasies,” Chopra said of Kotak.
While he never played for India, Kotak amassed over 8,000 first-class runs for Saurashtra.
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