RCB shocked with Gary Kirsten applying for India Women's head coach position

Gary Kirsten, who was appointed the head coach of RCB for the upcoming season has left the franchise stranded all of a sudden. The BCCI on Friday confirmed that the former Proteas cricketer applied for the role of the vacant Indian Women’s head coach. If in case he is selected for the job, Kirsten wouldn’t be able to continue as the coach of RCB in IPL 2019 due to the Conflict of Interest rules.

The IPL franchise also seems to be shell-shocked with this sudden move. However, one of the spokespersons has revealed that Gary hasn’t reached out to them as yet. He further added that the former India men’s coach will continue to be associated with the franchise unless there is an official word from the BCCI.

We’ll take a call on the situation if Gary informs us

“Gary has not reached out to us or mentioned anything about applying for any other position,” an RCB official told CricketNext. “Unless the BCCI informs us officially that Kirsten will be taking up a post with them, he remains the head coach of our team. We’ll take a call on the situation if Gary informs us otherwise.”

The South African will be attending the interview for the role on 20 December 2018. An ad-hoc committee member said that they are pretty much aware of Kirsten’s skill and credentials as the coach. Yet, he expressed uncertainty about the former Proteas cricketer taking up the new role as he is already the head coach of RCB.

On the other hand, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, secretary of the Lodha Panel said that there is no conflict of interest in Kirsten taking up two jobs since this is a very different situation.

“I don’t see any reason for conflict of interest in this issue but rather it will have to be a compromise. If it was (Ravi) Shastri requesting time off to do IPL coaching, then there might have been a conflict because he could have favoured a player from his franchise in the Indian team. This is not the case with the women’s job,” he said.

“However, women’s coach job is a full-time job. If he has to work on development of the team, he’ll have to devote all of his time ad not ask for couple of months off to coach in IPL even though the women’s calendar might be free at that time. I don’t know if BCCI will offer him that option or flexibility in their contract but in my opinion, Gary should not be holding two jobs, especially since one is a full-time women’s coach job,” Sankaranarayanan explained.

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