PTI

New Delhi, Jun 13: National football coach Bob Houghton's surprising appearance added drama to the BCCI working committee meeting, which was marked by chaos, confusion and a near-stampede.

The large battery of media men waiting in the lobby of a city hotel swarmed each and every visitor, who had anything to do with cricket.

Former BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra, long ousted from the throne by incumbent Sharad Pawar, enjoyed every bit of the attention, as did little known representatives from far-flung state associations.

While BCCI's penchant to rope in a foreigner for the coach's job was the butt of joke among reporters, the sight of Houghton entering the lift created a buzz among some of them.

While most could not recognise the Englishman, a reporter squeezed himself in the same elevator Houghton took. The football coach did not have any inkling about what was happening and asked the scribe "what's going on?"

The scribe told BCCI was trying to find a new coach after Graham Ford had snubbed them, Houghton said, "oh, cricket! That’s a craze in India and now I understand why the crowd is here."

Former captains Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar also attended the meeting and stayed for about half an hour before leaving. One of the enthusiastic fans came forward and requested Shastri, who was team's stop-gap cricket manager in Bangladesh, to continue in the job.

"Sir, commentary can come later. The country needs you," he said, which clearly embarrassed Shastri, who said "thank you" and hurriedly called his car.

Undaunted, the fan turned to Gavaskar and said, "Sir, please tell Shastri to continue. After the World Cup debacle, we did well under him in Bangladesh."

Gavaskar smiled and said, "The BCCI officials are meeting downstairs, why don’t you tell them?" With BCCI not announcing any scheduled time for the press conference, confusion reined supreme and once the door was opened, it was immediately followed by a near-stampede and a lady journalist almost got trampled in the mad rush.

Naturally, questions were hostile and at one stage, BCCI treasurer S Srinivasan snapped at a query posed by the lady scribe. "I'm not on trial ma'am," he retorted.