Former South Africa Test batsman Gary Kirsten has been appointed India team coach but a formal announcement would be made only in a week.
KOLKATA: Former South Africa Test batsman Gary Kirsten has been appointed India team coach but a formal announcement would be made only in a week, a top Indian cricket board official said here Saturday.
"Kirsten has been appointed the coach," Rajeev Shukla, a vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said here.
"Kirsten will be the chief coach on India's tour of Australia, starting this month, and Lalchand Rajput will be his assistant for just that series to felicitate the handing over of the charge. Kirsten will be the 'coach' and Rajput will be 'cricket manager'," he said during the second day of the second India-Pakistan Test at the Eden Gardens.
Rajput, who guided India to the Twenty20 World Championship in September, is currently the team's cricket manager.
Bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad and fielding coach, Robin Singh, will also continue in their existing roles.
Board secretary Niranjan Shah, who is here to attend a meeting of the BCCI office-bearers, said that a formal announcement would be made in a week.
"We will let you know in seven-eight days," Shah told reporters later when asked when a proper announcement on the successor of Greg Chappell would be made.
When told that Shukla has already said that the former left-handed opener had been appointed, Shah said: "Whatever he has said is correct."
Kirsten, who had not even applied, was surprisingly called to Delhi and interviewed by the board's coach selection committee, led by BCCI president Sharad Pawar, this week.
Around 20 people, including Rajput, had applied for the post that has been lying vacant since March, when Chappell decided against seeking a renewal after the end of his two-year tenure following India's first-round exit at the World Cup in the West Indies.
Former India players Ravi Shastri, Chandu Borde and Rajput have been the temporary cricket managers of the team on tours of Bangladesh, England, South Africa and home series against Australia and Pakistan.
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