CIC chairman Pravin Amre in fray to be Mumbai coach again!

MUMBAI: When the

Cricket Improvement Committee

(CIC) of the

Mumbai Cricket Association

(MCA) replaced Milind Rege with former India pacer Ajit Agarkar as the chief selector on Friday, CIC chairman and ex-India batsman Pravin Amre explained the development and called it a move to bring in someone with "fresh ideas."

However, by Monday, it has emerged that Amre, who has already coached the

Mumbai Ranji

team for six seasons in the past (from 2006-07 to 2010-11, and then in 2014-15) is himself the front-runner to replace current Ranji coach Chandrakant Pandit along with former India stumper Sameer Dighe.

The CIC will meet on Tuesday to appoint coaches for Mumbai's various age group teams. If his name is discussed, Amre, interestingly, will quit a committee, which he was made a chairman of only four days back. Since Dighe is currently in Dehradun on a private coaching assignment, it looks highly unlikely that the new Mumbai coach will be named on Tuesday.

Mumbai have won the Ranji Trophy thrice with Amre as the coach. Of course, the 48-yearold will have to quit the CIC and the managing committee, where he's a member. "This is farcical. How can he be the CIC chairman one day, and suddenly become the Mumbai coach the next day. Even Agarkar was on the CIC panel which named him as the chief selector. These are former cricketers with impeccable integrity, but these things smack of a conflict of interest," fumed an MCA official.

"Amre is also the sports secretary of Air India, and president of

Shivaji Park Gymkhana

, and he provides personalized coaching to a lot of top India cricketers. The MCA will have to address these conflict of interest issues seriously," pointed out another official.

A source in the MCA, however, defended the idea to name Amre as the new Mumbai coach. "He himself hasn't proposed his name, but others on the CIC panel are requesting him to do the job, since he's the most experienced man to do it.

"Most ex-Mumbai cricketers are busy coaching some or the other state, where you get more money, and the pressure to win the Ranji Trophy is far lesser, as compared to Mumbai. Amre, we must remember, never left Mumbai even when he was offered handsome money by other domestic teams," he explained.

No head coach at academy

MCA officials are claiming that quite a few players approached them to complain about Pandit's behaviour with them. Along with Pandit's removal, the post of the 'head coach' of the MCA 's academy at BKC will be done away with. The academy will now have batting, bowling and fielding coaches. Former India off-spinner Ramesh Powar and former Mumbai pacer

Pradeep Sundaram

are in the fray to be the bowling coaches at the academy.

The MCA is also set to launch five-six academies (Under-16 nodal coaching centres (along the lines of BCCI's zonal academies) in Virar, Bhiwandi, Vashi, Kandivli, and one in South Mumbai to help budding cricketers cut down on their travel time.