Coach appointment before Aussies' visit: BCCI

MUMBAI: A new coach for the Indian team is expected to be appointed before next month's visit by World Cup champions Australia to this country for a seven-match bilateral One-Day series, the Cricket Board said on Wednesday.    

"We have called for applications for the coach through an advertisement and hopefully the new coach will be appointed before the Australian series," said BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah.

The BCCI has drawn up a long list of qualifications for prospective candidates for the high-profile post through the advertisement and the last date for receiving the applications for the coach has been fixed as September 15.

The Australian team is scheduled to arrive on September 25 and the first match of the one-day series is scheduled on September 29 at Bangalore.

Meanwhile, Shah did not express any surprise at the backing the BCCI got from the ICC's CEO Malcolm Speed on Tuesday in their stand-off with the rebel Indian Cricket League.

"We expected this (support) from the ICC. The BCCI is one of its members," Shah said.

Speed had told a media conference in Mumbai that the BCCI was the only recognised body to run official cricket in India and any other organisation wanting to conduct any cricket tournaments needs to get a green signal from the Indian Board.