High stakes for "low profile" Support Staff of Team India

Will Team India's support staff be selected on merit or will it be "All the Head Coach's men" is a million dollar question which will be answered very soon. 

The manner in which Ravi Shastri was chosen as the head coach of Indian cricket team only exemplified the process of selection as a mere formality as the BCCI  understood a fact -- this Indian team is a Virat Kohli team  -- and it's better that the captain had his way. 

Now after the captain had his way, is it the turn of the head coach to have his way?

According to BCCI sources, bowling coach Bharat Arun, Shastri's favourite, is a certainity for being retained for another term. Undoubtedly, Bharat has done enormous job in building a solid bowling unit and in keeping them motivated. 

Batting coach Sanjay Bangar, who is reportedly not in the good books of Shastri anymore, is another certainity, but, to be replaced by former India opener Vikram Rathour, a new found favourite of the chief coach. 

Interestingly, Rathour was a selector of Indian team till very recently and now likely to find another stint with the Indian team, thanks to his close proximity to the head coach.

But the big question and all eyes will be on the fielding coach. Will Ramakrishnan Sridhar, another Shastri's favourite boy, who has also done extremely well in improving the fielding standards of the team be given an extension or not.

He will be pitted against one of the greatest fielders of all time -- Jonty Rhodes. Stakes are extremely high for Jonty for his unmatchable credentials and his experience with Mumbai Indians but he is likely to come at a very high price with his own set of strength & conditioning coaches and sub-coaching staffs. Will BCCI be ready to shell out big money for that?

Critics argue that selection of head coach was an eye-wash as the Cricket Advisory Committee, led by Kapil Dev, had considered all those criteria that only favoured Shastri. Will a similar approach be adopted for chosing the support staff?

The selection of the support staff will be held over four days from Monday (August 19) to Thursday (August 22) in Mumbai by the men's senior selection committee headed by MSK Prasad. 

According to the new BCCI constitution, the powers to select the support staff are vested to the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri. However, in a COA meeting, it was advised by the BCCI legal team that the CEO is only a signatory to the process.