Arun TNPL Tiruvallur Veerans

Within 72 hours of the Gala Announcement appointing him as the Head Coach, B Arun quits Tiruvallur Veerans

Will VBC now look for another coach with less than a week for the TNPL??

VB Chandrasekar seen with B Arun (far left) and Muttiah Muralidharan at the appointment announcement

Last Saturday afternoon, VB Tiruvallur Veerans announced the official appointment of Muttiah Muralidharan as its Mentor at a Gala Function at a city hotel. There were 100s of young cricketers from the VB academy who were present on the occasion. And in the front row there were a galaxy of star personnel from the TNCA that included KS Viswanathan, PS Raman (Chairman TNPL), V Ramesh (VP, TNCA and Secretary Kanchipuram CA) and RI Palani (he preferred the last row).

Also, present on the occasion was B Arun who was introduced and announced as the Head Coach of the Tiruvallur Veerans by Franchise owner VB Chandrasekar.

When asked by VBC to talk about the roping in of the two stars, PS Raman recalled the year when Arun, VBC and himself were part of the Madras University team in Delhi well over three decades ago. He spoke about the value that Arun would bring to the Veerans and how roping in Arun to the TNPL was a big boost.

Kasi Viswanathan, who VBC introduced with a tinge of sadness as the ex Hony Secretary of the TNCA, also spoke of Arun signing up with the Veerans as being a great positive for the  TNPL.

VBC spoke glowing about Arun’s capabilities and how he was a great addition for the team and how the team would benefit from him. Interestingly, he also added in his introductory address that Arun was being spoken of as the ‘likely’ bowling coach of India.

After such a gala announcement and with the entire media featuring this news on Sunday, Arun has announced quitting as the coach (even before he started his engagement!!!) of Tiruvallur Veerans.

While Arun’s elevation is a matter of great pride for the city, the gala appointment announcement amidst top officials of the TNCA / TNPL and now  his quitting within 72 hours or so is not a great sign of the way TNPL is being handled.

If VBC knew that Arun was in line for the India coaching job and if it was a matter of time before that announcement was made (either way), could he have waited a while longer before taking this call/ making this announcement and positioning it as a being a big uplift for the Veerans.

This is the problem of over hyping every thing in cricket and making announcements to up the glamour quotient of an event. While 'moves' are part of the cricketing system, with VBC himself announcing that Saturday afternoon about Arun being the likely choice for India, he could have deferred making the announcement but he chose to go for the big headline in the Sunday's newspapers.

With less than a week for the start of the tournament, will he now look for another Head coach or will he himself double up as a coach as well.

We will wait and watch.

PS: TNPL may be all glamour with TV coverage. But for the lead up nets sessions, players belonging to Tiruvallur Veerans are having to ride (two wheeler) 25 kms one way  to the ground in Kelambakkam - That's a whopping 50 kms for a nets session. The players are likely to be worn out by the time they reach the ground for practice!!!