Gautam Gambhir is having a hard time finalising his support staff. Unlike his predecessors, he has so far faced resistance from the BCCI for the majority of his preferences. Morne Morkel was reportedly the latest of his recommendations as the bowling coach to be turned down by the board.

Gambhir was keen on having the former South African speedster, who served as Pakistan's bowling coach during last year's ODI World Cup and is currently associated with IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants in the same capacity, as part of his coaching staff. However, according to a report in The Economic Times, the BCCI has rejected Gambhir's proposal.

This was Gambhir's third pick as the bowling coach, which the BCCI rejected. The previous two were reportedly R Vinay Kumar and Laximipathy Balaji. The two former Indian quicks were not approved in the first round of discussions between the board and the new head coach of Team India.

Bowling coach is not the only discipline in which the board has rejected Gambhir's recommendations. Two of Gambhir's picks as the fielding coach—Ryan ten Doeschate and Jonty Rhodes—were also turned down.

Among Gambhir's preferences, only former India all-rounder Abhishek Nayar appears to be in favourable condition to join his support staff either as an assistant coach or a batting coach. Nothing has been finalised yet, but multiple media reports suggest that the former Mumbai cricketer, who has made a name for himself by transforming the careers of Dinesh Karthik and Shreyas Iyer, is likely to get the nod.

While there are no doubts about the individual capacity of the candidates rejected by the board, the only chord that binds them with Gambhir is the Kolkata Knight Riders. Gambhir either captained them or worked with them as a member of the coaching staff of KKR, and ten Doeschate's case, he did both.

Morkel, Balaji, and Vinay Kumar played three seasons each for KKR under Gambhir's captaincy. Nayar is the only one who didn't play under Gambhir in KKR but was the assistant coach of the franchise Gambhir mentored this year to the IPL title.

Changing stance of BCCI

Generally, the BCCI gives the head coach a free hand in selecting his support staff members. This has been followed for ages. During Greg Chappell and Gary Kirsten's time, they got away with using relatively lesser-known names in cricket like Ian Frazer and Paddy Upton as part of their support staff.

Not much changed during the period of Anil Kumble, Ravi Shastri, and Rahul Dravid. Shastri in fact paid no heed to the recommendations of then-Cricket Advisory Committee of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman and instead, went ahead with his choice of support staff members. Dravid also picked Paras Mhambrey and T Dilip as the bowling and fielding coach, respectively. He had worked with them at the NCA.

Then what changed during Gambhi's tenure? He was after all, handpicked by the board to succeed Dravid. The report in ET adds that this signals the change in the board's stance.

"One insider has suggested that this was one way in which BCCI was letting Gambhir know that although he was its choice for head coach, he was not going to be the one calling the shots. There was also a school of thought that suggested that this was only reflective of the change in the functioning of BCCI. Where previously decisions were taken largely by committee and consensus, it's an open secret that the power is now centred around few individuals," the report added.

With barely 10 days to go before Gambhir begins his coaching journey with Team India for the T20I series in Sri Lanka, the current NCA coaching staff will likely work as the former India opener's interim support staff until the board and Gambhir reach a consensus.

Read Also: 'it annoyed me when they said don't sledge virat kohli...': ex-aus captain tim paine loved to distract india legend