BCCI drove me to the wall, says Patil

Sandeep Patil’s agreeing to coach a team in the Indian Cricket League may have sent the BCCI top honchos into such a frenzy that it has started taking a serious view of players

Sandeep Patil’s agreeing to coach a team in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) may have sent the BCCI top honchos into such a frenzy that it has started taking a serious view of players attaching themselves with the ‘rival’ league. But it is the BCCI which has to take the blame for pushing the super coach to the wall.

Patil, who became the third former India cricketer after Kapil Dev and Kiran More to join the ICL, said: “BCCI left me with no option but to accept the offer.”

Blaming the BCCI squarely, Patil added: “I am a coach and I need work. I wrote to BCCI 16 months back offering my services, but there was no response from it. The board didn’t even mention my name during its search for a new coach or cricket manager. I met Sharad Pawar personally and he assured me that my services would be very much required.

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“Even four months back, Pawar spoke to Niranjan Shah (secretary) and Ratnakar Shetty (CAO) in front of me and told them to give me some responsibility. But till this day, I haven’t heard anything. What am I supposed to do? Sit and wait another 16 months?”

The hard-hitting middle-order batsman, who played a crucial role in the 1983 World Cup winning team said that he needed to find some body and the board didn’t give any. “When ICL offered me the job, I had to choose between sitting idle and going to work. I am shocked that the board should have any reservations.”

Patil, who coached Kenya into the 2003 World Cup semi-finals and was coach of India A, believes that “he has accepted the job purely from a coach’s perspective and nothing else. I am ready to help any team that needs my services as a coach. It could be Kenya or Oman again, or any other state side. So ICL shouldn’t be looked upon as anything different.

“I am not getting into this fight between the board and ICL. My job is to coach, irrespective of who wants me. And by the way, I am only doing a service to the board by coaching the boys. I am not training them to fight BCCI. So where is the question of conflict of interests?” he asks.

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Patil also confirmed he hasn’t heared officially from the board on its plans to stop his pension. “I am yet to hear from them in writing. I have only come to know from news reports. But it is purely BCCI’s decision. I did not go to it asking for pension. The board gave it for my services as a player and now if it wishes to stop pension, then let it be so. But for me, there’s no going back on my contract with ICL.”

“I have made a commitment to ICL and, as a professional coach, I will honour that,” was his parting shot.