As BCCI has started advertising for the post of coach, the battle has got spicier as reports say BCCI has approached former Indian opener Virender Sehwag and asked him to apply for the post.
“We have contacted Sehwag during the IPL and asked him to consider applying for the job of India coach. But he won’t be the only one applying because we expect other former players to also throw their hats in the ring,” a top BCCI official was quoted saying.
Duncan Fletcher”s stint with Indian team ended after 2015 World Cup and the post of coach was vacated. Ravi Shastri was the team director with Sanjay Bangar as batting coach, Bharat Arun as bowling coach and R Sridhar as fielding consultant.
In June 2016, a month before India”s tour of Caribbean BCCI appointed Anil Kumble as a full time coach of Indian team giving him a contract of one year. Kumble”s coaching tenure got off to a great start as India won the test series against West Indies 2-0 beating them at Antigua and St.Lucia.
Then later in India”s grand home season, India won 10 out of 13 tests making it a season to remember. All in all Team India enjoyed great success under Kumble”s regime.
Sehwag entering the race is going to give a cut-throat competition to Kumble. Cricket Experts and fans want Rahul Dravid as the next coach of Team India but Dravid has not applied for the post yet.
The new coach will be chosen by the Cricket Committee which comprises of Indian legends Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly. The last date to apply for the post of coach is 31 May.
BCCI official are likely to be kept away from the process of selecting coach after recommendations from CoA. “This is to ensure that the process remains fair. We don’t want a scenario where the decision to pick a coach gets influenced by what has happened in the pay negotiations where Kumble is bargaining hard with BCCI officials,”
Also CoA is unlikely to take into account the opinion of players as they don”t think it is the right way to go.
– by Atharva Apte
