India's next head coach to be selected on July 10th, reveals Sourav Ganguly

What’s the story?

Former Indian skipper and member of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), Sourav Ganguly said that the new coach of the Indian Cricket Team will be selected on July 10^th.

Following the resignation of Anil Kumble as head coach, just days after India’s loss against Pakistan in the final of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, the BCCI had extended the deadline for applying for the post of Indian head coach to July 9. Ganguly has now clarified that the interview process will be conducted by the CAC, which has the former captain himself, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman as its three members, the very next day.

“The interview will be held on the 10th of this month in Mumbai,” Ganguly told reporters on the sidelines of a Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) meeting.

In case you didn’t know...

Despite phenomenal success on the field, with series victories over West Indies, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh, and Australia, Kumble stepped down from his role as Indian head coach following a rift with skipper Virat Kohli.

The CAC had appointed Kumble on a one-year contract in 2016 and though the Indian spin legend agreed to extend his contract for the hastily arranged tour of the West Indies following the Champions Trophy as well as re-applying for the post, he resigned abruptly when the BCCI communicated to him that Kohli had cited reservations against his style of man-management.

Extra Cover: The Virat Kohli - Anil Kumble saga: No winner and no villain in this contest

The details

Both Ganguly and the BCCI have sort of sided with Kohli in his rift with Kumble with the latter commenting that Cricket is a captain’s game with the coach being someone who can guide the team along the way.

An unnamed BCCI official had also said that whoever is selected as the next Indian coach should get along with Virat Kohli with the board eyeing a long-term role for the 28-year-old, who took over MS Dhoni as skipper of the side in all three formats of the game.

Before the Kumble controversy broke out, the likes of Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Lalchand Rajput and Dodda Ganesh had applied for the job while former Team India manager Ravi Shastri threw his name in the hat following Kumble’s resignation and subsequent extension of the deadline by the BCCI.

Though Ganguly has refused to name any frontrunner, Shastri and Sehwag seems to be heading the line with the CAC likely to opt for an Indian in the role.

What’s next?

India are currently taking on West Indies in a five-match ODI series with BCCI general manager M.V. Sridhar supervising the team management and Sanjay Bangar and R Sridhar continuing their association with the team as the batting and fielding coaches respectively following Kumble’s resignation.

The new head coach’s first assignment is likely to be the series against Sri Lanka, but the schedule for the same is yet to be chalked out.

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Author’s take

There is a still week left to go before the deadline runs out and there could be more names thrown in by the time the CAC sits down to select India’s new head coach. Shastri looks to be in the driving seat considering his rapport with the team and in particular, skipper Virat Kohli, during his association with the Indian cricket team as manager.