No Team India coach for now, formal announcement to be made later says BCCI

What’s the story?

Despite media reports coming in that Ravi Shastri had landed the job as the head coach of the Indian team, BCCI’s acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary declared that no formal announcement had been made, and the board was still deliberating the decision. He also added that a formal announcement will be made later.It came a day after the Cricket Advisory Committee, comprising of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, decided to hold the announcement of the head coach, stating a formal call will be made in a few days as ‘there is no hurry’.

In case you didn’t know…

Reports seeped out of the dressing room that relations between captain Virat Kohli and Kumble had turned fractious, prompting the BCCI to announce a fresh search for the coach’s job in May-end. Kumble stepped down from the post on the eve of Team India’s departure for the West Indies tour.

The BCCI received ten applications but narrowed it down to six: shortlisting Ravi Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Lalchand Rajput, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus and Philip Simmons. Others like Dodda Ganesh and Lance Klusener had also applied for the same. Klusener was put on standby.

Shastri had not officially applied at first but was convinced to send out his resume by CAC member Sachin Tendulkar during the extended deadline.

The heart of the matter

News had broken in that Ravi Shastri had been appointed the coach of the Indian team, but the BCCI’s acting secretary, in a press conference, declared that the final decision was yet to be made.

Committee members Ganguly and Laxman were present at the BCCI Cricket Centre in Mumbai for the interviews, while Sachin Tendulkar, the third member, was available for the process via a video call from the United Kingdom.

Ganguly, speaking on behalf of Laxman and Tendulkar, we want to speak to the captain said that “there's no hurry at the moment, as the SL tour in coming up shortly”. He also said that “we want to speak to Virat Kohli once he comes back from America”.

“We want to make sure that everybody is in synchronisation. We don't want to see six months down the line, things to go wrong”, he added.

The BCCI interviewed five out of the ten candidates, with reports coming in that Ravi Shastri, who had already served as the team’s director between 2014 and 2016, emerging as the front-runner due to his amicable relationship with captain Kohli. Shastri did not attend the interview in Mumbai, but was available via a video interaction, just like last year. He had stayed back in the UK after the Champions Trophy and was the last one to be interviewed.

Virender Sehwag, the other strong contender for the coveted job, was interviewed at the headquarters in person for close to two hours. Simmons was not available for the interview.

What’s next?

The announcement will be made public once the CAC sits down with Virat Kohli and discusses the prospective candidates.

If reports are to believed, this could also be the last time that an interview process is carried out to select the candidate, especially after the verbal spat that unfolded between Sourav Ganguly and Ravi Shastri last year. Also, the CAC now believes that the documents should carry enough weight for the candidates to prove their credentials.

Author’s take

With the next coach set to hold the post till at least the 2019 World Cup, a well-thought out decision has to be made, for which the committee has rightly decided to take some more time and discuss with captain Kohli.

While the decision has been put on hold, Shastri, who held the post of the director from 2014 to 2016, continues to be the front-runner for the job ever since he decided to jump into the fray due to his rapport with the Indian captain.