No more ad-hoc appointments, Indian women's cricket team support staff to be offered long-term contracts

The BCCI will do away with the practice of appointing support staff of the Indian women's cricket team on an ad-hoc basis and instead offer them long-term contacts.

As per the BCCI constitution, the head coach is supposed to be picked by the Cricket Advisory Committee while the selectors pick the support staff.

However, the rule regarding the women's team support staff -- batting, fielding and bowling coach -- has not been followed strictly in the past with the BCCI appointing coaches from the National Cricket Academy on a temporary basis.

"All the coaches will be given long-term contracts and it will not a temporary arrangement like we have seen in the past. This will give the team much needed stability," a BCCI source told PTI.

The decision was taken at the virtual Apex Council meeting on Sunday.

Since the sacking of Ramesh Powar in December, the women's cricket team is without a head coach and even played the T20 World Cup in February without the head of the coaching staff.

The senior women's team is yet to win a world title and streamlining the coaching process will be the first step in its preparation for the next ICC event.

The media rights for the home season, both international and domestic for the 2023-2027 cycle, was also part of the agenda but no concrete decision was taken on the subject.

After the Rs 48,390 crore windfall from the IPL media rights, the BCCI will have high expectations for the media rights for 2023-2027 cycle. With the entry of Viacom in Indian cricket's ecosystem, it will be a three-way battle between them, Star and Sony.

The BCCI reaped huge benefits from selling the broadcast and digital rights separately for the IPL and it is expected to follow that for the international games at home. Star had paid Rs 6,138.1 crore for the previous cycle that ended on March 31.