Dubai: The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) has put on hold the announcement of the new Indian cricket team coach to extend the suspense over the appointment to the post.
This has cast doubts on whether the top favourites for the post have been stumped by the CAC.
Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, who is one of the three members of the Cricket Advisory Committee along with Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, announced through a press conference that all the shortlisted candidates for the post (Lalchand Rajput, Richard Pybus, Tom Moody, Virender Sehwag and Ravi Shastri and Phil Simmons) have been interviewed but they will take a few more days to decide.
“We will take a few more days to decide. We are not in a hurry,” remarked Ganguly though strangely India’s tour to Sri Lanka is set commence on July 19.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had on Sunday even announced the team for the Sri Lankan series before naming the coach. Hence, whoever takes charge as next coach will be guiding a team which is given to him without being consulted.
Ganguly’s reason for the delay in naming the coach is that the CAC want to discuss the name with Indian team captain Virat Kohli, who is now in US on his way back from West Indies.
“We want to speak to Virat Kohli once he is back from America, all three of us along with the respective people concerned. We will explain to him that the coaches want to function in a certain way and make sure that everybody is on the same page before we make the announcement, because once we make the announcement it has to be till the next (2019) World Cup.”
This has cast doubts on whether Ravi Shastri, who was the top favourite and considered the choice of Kohli for the post have been ignored. If Shastri was the choice of the CAC then consultation with Kohli wasn’t necessary. It is understood that Ganguly, who is not in good terms with Shastri, has put his foot down and wants a candidate who is not talked about as Kohli’s most favoured candidate.
It is learnt that CAC has been very impressed with some of the presentations by some of the candidates, especially Rajput. The CAC may even give Kohli an option of either choosing Rajput, Sehwag or go for a foreign coach with Tom Moody tipped to be the favourite.
Ganguly even continued the ‘tradition’ of the BCCI by painting a totally different picture by stating that Kohli hadn’t interfered at all in naming anyone although Indian media is agog with news that Shastri is the captain’s favourite.
“You got to give credit to Virat that he is just completely straight about it. He has no input, he has not sent any names, but we feel as the Advisory Committee that he is the captain, which is the most important thing in cricket. He and everyone of us need to be on the same page because for us Indian cricket is more important. We are just a small bit; the main bit is the players who are going to play with the coach.”
