Mumbai: The top functionaries of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are waiting to receive reports from captain Rahul Dravid, coach Greg Chappell and Manager Sanjay Jagdale in the context of India's first round exit from the ICC World Cup in the West Indies.

Further swept into the vortex of a mess triggered by some indignant cricketers to direct insinuations at Chappell and also the postulated divide among the senior and junior members of the team, the BCCI officials are bracing themselves to face the tricky issues with a great deal of equanimity and tact.

On Friday morning, the BCCI's office-bearers including President Sharad Pawar will receive reports from Jagdale and Chappell and also raise specific questions to Jagdale, Chappell and Dravid to solve many vexing issues. Jagdale is also the Secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association. The Chairman of the senior selection committee Dilip Vengsarkar has also been invited to the meeting convened at 10 a.m.

Pointing fingers

Since the team returned home on March 27 after losing to Sri Lanka in a crucial qualifying match, a section of the electronic and print media and more significantly former cricketers and some senior members of the present team have pointed fingers at Chappell saying he was the main culprit for India's decline in recent times and that he went to the extent of persecuting some players. But the official line from the BCCI's principal office-bearers has been that they will believe only reports they receive from the team officials.

Chappell, who met two senior officials of the BCCI at the Cricket Centre, and Jagdale, who lives in Indore, would have conveyed the gist of what went wrong in the opening match against Bangladesh, especially the number of messages sent to the well-set batsmen in the middle to raise the scoring rate.

The BCCI office-bearers also hope to have a purposeful meeting in the afternoon with some well-known former players. The entire gamut of Indian cricket like building a strong and competitive first class cricket, quality of pitches, umpiring and match referees are likely to be discussed. The BCCI would be advised to schedule its domestic tournaments in such a way to make the National players obliged to take part in the Ranji, Duleep and Irani Cup tournaments.

Those invited are Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Chandu Borde, S. Venkatraghavan, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and K. Srikkanth.

Soon after India's exit from the World Cup, Sharad Pawar said: "Harsh decisions will have to be taken and should there be a need to change the coach, the BCCI will mull over it if they find a coach better than Chappell.''

With Chappell informing the BCCI that he would not seek an extension of employment with the Indian team, the decks have been cleared for the BCCI to nominate someone it deems fit to take charge of the team immediately or follow a process inviting applications from Indians and foreigners.

Persuading Gavaskar

There's a possibility of a handful of Working Committee members persuading Sunil Gavaskar to take over the mantle from Chappell. Gavaskar had once briefly taken charge from the ailing Ajit Wadekar in Sharjah and not long ago in a home series against South Africa he was the batting consultant of the team in addition to John Wright. According to a senior functionary of the BCCI, Gavaskar is a man of stature, will command respect and no one will raise a question. Moreover he worked gratis on both occasions.

The World Cup reports and the suggestions of the former captains will be placed before the Working Committee on Saturday. "Only cricketing matters, including the appointment of a coach and annual players' contract will be discussed at the Working Committee,'' said a senior BCCI official.

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