Who will be India’s coach for forthcoming Australia series? This is a question no one in the Board of Control for Cricket in India is willing to take.
MUMBAI: Who will be India’s coach for forthcoming Australia series? This is a question no one in the Board of Control for Cricket in India is willing to take.
After making noises that it will appoint a new coach for the high-intensity seven-match series against the world champions, the BCCI is set to go in for yet another interim arrangement. In fact, the first meeting of the coach will not be held before the start of the Australia series.
DNA has learnt that the special coach committee will meet in Bangalore on 29 at Bangalore, where Mahendra Singh Dhoni & Co will be taking on Ricky Ponting’s all-conquering men in the first of the seven-match series.
A meeting before that could be not called as two members of the committee — Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who are now in South Africa — are not scheduled to arrive in the country before September 25. And given the Graham Ford experience, the members will scan every credential and interview the candidates before discussing them on table.
On Saturday, the Board hinted at yet another interim arrangement. “We’ve to see. We’ve not yet decided,” said BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah. But spokesman Rajiv Shukla added: “We’ve to go for an interim arrangement.”
Neither official was willing to hazard a guess over who will be the next interim coach. Lalchand Rajput, under whose guidance the Indian team has done impressively in the Twenty20 World Cup South Africa, could be a top contender but not a certainty.
The interim coach could be named in a day or two. When specifically asked if Rajput would be continued, the Board officials were evasive. “We’ll have to discuss with the president. Rajput was appointed only for the tournament in South Africa,” said an official seeking anonymity.
If the Board were to go in for yet another interim coach, he will be the fourth — after Ravi Shastri, Chandu Borde, Lalchand Rajput — since Greg Chappell resigned following India’s World Cup debacle.
The Board had advertised on the websites of other cricket boards seeking applications for the post last month. The last date for sending in the applications was September 15 and the Board announced that the new coach would be appointed before Ponting and his men land in India.
More than a dozen applications have been received by the Board. Shah refused to take the names but there are quite a few Indian applicants besides those whose names — John Dyson, Kepler Wessels, Martin Crowe, Richard Done and Terry Oliver — are already out.
The great Indian coach hunt
April 2007: Coach Chappell resigns
April 2007: Shastri appointed manager for Bangladesh series
May 2007: Borde comes in place of Shastri for England series
August 2007: Rajput made manager for Twenty20 WC
August 2007: Board advertises for the coach
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