Amarnath appointed Bengal consultant

Mohinder Amarnath, the former Indian allrounder, has been appointed consultant of the Bengal team, which was relegated to the Plate division after finishing bottom of their group in the Ranji Trophy last year. Besides working with the senior team, Amarnath will also be in charge of district cricket in the state.

"After toying with the idea of a consultant and coach for Bengal seniors team, we've finally agreed to appoint a consultant. Details about Amarnath's job profile will be worked out in due course," Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), told PTI. "As a consultant he need not stay for the entire season but he'll be available depending upon his other commitments."

Amarnath, who has been among the contenders for the post of India's coach on several occasions, expressed happiness on his appointment. "I'm looking forward to giving the boys as much time as possible," he said. "I'm very happy to be associated with Bengal. I'll be coming to Kolkata some time in September and then we'll discuss how to go about the forthcoming season."

The decision was taken at Dalmiya's first working-committee meeting since he won the CAB elections last month. Dalmiya said his main aim was to get Bengal back into the Elite division and one of the big challenges was to convince several key members of the side to remain with Bengal.

"We'll do our best to bring back Bengal into the Elite division. Initially, after taking over, we faced a problem in which most of the seniors wanted to leave the state," he said. "They felt that by representing Bengal in Plate division their chances of making the national or India A side will be less, which is a genuine reason.

"We had to convince them and then seven players (Manoj Tiwary, Ranadeb Bose, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ashok Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha and Saurasish Lahiri) pledged to play for Bengal and give their best shot to bring back the glory days."

The CAB also announced the revival of the Talent Resource Development Officials (TRDO) which was initiated by the BCCI a few years ago but discontinued later. Former Bengal wicketkeeper Rusi Jeejeebhoy was named the chairman of the TRDO committee.