Bharat Arun clears the air around being India's next bowling coach, says not yet appointed by BCCI

PTI

New Delhi: With the support of India's newly appointed head coach Ravi Shastri, Bharat Arun is all set to be signed by BCCI as a bowling coach, at least that was what the cricketing fraternity knew about on Sunday. However, in a recent interview, Arun shrugged off all such rumours.

After the much-anticipated announcement of Ravi Shastri's appointment as head coach of Team India, a fresh speculation mushroomed up as to who would be his support staff members. The 55-year-old former cricketer put forth the name of Arun as the bowling coach. It wasn't much of a surprise as the duo had previously worked together during Shastri's two-year long stint as a Team Director of the national squad.

However, all reports and rumours silenced down when Arun was announced as the coach of VB Thiruvallur Veerans, a T20 team of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL). Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan was announced as the team's mentor. The competition is slated to begin from July 22 to August 20.

When interviewed by TOI on the ongoing speculation regarding him being signed by BCCI as the bowling coach, the 54-year-old said, "Not yet."

"As of now, I've to carry on normally, isn't it? If I do get the India job, I'll leave both the TNPL and the RCB," he added.

According to the conflict-of-interest issue, Arun has to leave behind all coaching associations with both TNPL and that of Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore. Reports also say that officials of Hyderabad Cricket Association are once again keen on signing the former cricketer.

The fate of Rahul Dravid and Zaheer Khan, along with Arun will be decided on Tuesday, by a four-member BCCI panel comprising Committee of Administrators (CoA) memeber Diana Edulji, acting president CK Khanna, CEO Rahul Johri and acting secretary Amitabh Chadhuary.