Kirsten, Gibbs to face panel for post of women’s coach
MUMBAI:THE next step in the hunt for India’s new women’s cricket coach will be taken here on Thursday when shortlisted candidates, including Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs and incumbent Ramesh Powar, appear for interviews before the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection panel.
The other shortlisted candidates out of the 28 applicants who will be interviewed are WV Raman, Venkatesh Prasad, Manoj Prabhakar, Trent Johnston, Mark Coles, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Brad Hogg.
The high-profile shortlist will be interviewed by an adhoc panel comprising ex-india players Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy.
It is learnt that most of the foreigners will give their presentation via Skype while locals like Powar will appear in person.
The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA), comprising chairman Vinod Rai and former India captain Diana Edulji, have been divided over the coach selection process.
While Edulji wanted Powar to continue at least till the tour of New Zealand starting next month, Rai instructed the BCCI top brass to invite fresh applications. Powar’s controversial interim tenure ended on November 30 after a bitter fallout with ODI captain and Mithali Raj over selection issues.
Powar decided to apply after T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana came out in strong support of the former India spinner.
What might go against him is the sequence of events that lead to the interviews. Powar and Harmanpreet, along with other members of the team management, decided to drop Raj for the World T20 semi-final which the team lost to England by eight wickets.
After returning home from West Indies, Raj accused Powar and Edulji of trying to destroy her and being biased against her. Powar, on his part, accused Raj of threatening to retire midway into the World T20 after being denied the opening slot and creating chaos in the team.
‘MS DHONI INDIA’S GREATEST EVER’
NEWDELHI:INDIA legend Kapil Dev has lauded MS Dhoni, calling him as the ‘greatest player India has ever produced’. The 1983 World Cup winning skipper said that Dhoni always put country before self and should be given due credit for it.
“MS Dhoni is the greatest player India has ever produced. He played 90 Tests and then said let’s give a chance to the youngsters. Dhoni did that and hats off to him for putting his country before himself,” said Kapil, who played 131 Tests.
WARRANT AGAINST GAMBHIR
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Wednesday issued bailable warrants against retired cricketer Gautam Gambhir for not appearing before it despite repeated summons in a case related to alleged cheating of flat buyers in a real estate project.
JUNIOR BADMINTON
LUCKNOW: Top-seeded Akarshi Kashyap and Kiren Geore continued their winning streak in the 43rd Junior National Badminton Championship here on Wednesday.
Defending champion Akarshi of Air India took just 31 minutes to beat Adya Parashar of Delhi 21-5, 21-12 in a third-round tie among girls, while Kerala’s Kiren had a tough match against Bengal’s Suraj Chakroborty in the first game before winning the third round boys’ tie 21-16, 21-10 at the UP Badminton Academy.
Most of the seeded players in both categories made it to the next round, but the day’s biggest upset came late in the evening when unseeded Vikas Yadav of Delhi brushed aside seventh seed Dhruv Rawat of Uttarakhand in a marathon battle, which lasted over an hour. Yadav won 22-20, 15-21, 21-13.
ARCHERY ELECTIONS
NEW DELHI: The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) will not send its observer for the Archery Association of India (AAI) elections to be held here on December 22.
IOA president Narinder Batra said the “elections are unconstitutional” as they are not being conducted as per the National Sports Code (2011). “So, we have decided not to send an official,” he said.