Shastri top contender for coach post, decision today

PITCH REPORT 10 have applied for the job, BCCI will interview 6 candidates

Former team director Ravi Shastri will be the front-runner when the three-member Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) meets in Mumbai on Monday to scrutinise candidates for the high-profile job of Indian men’s cricket team coach.

For the record, BCCI received 10 CVs — Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Dodda Ganesh, Lalchand Rajput, Lance Klusener, Rakesh Sharma (Oman national team coach), Phil Simmons and Upendranath Bramhachari (engineer with no cricketing background). It is learnt that the CAC will interview six of the 10 candidates.

As per sources, the six likely candidates are Shastri, Sehwag, Moody, Simmons, Pybus and Rajput.

Klusener, as of now, may be kept on stand-by but has very little or no chance of getting the job. The position had fallen vacant after former head coach and legendary spinner Anil Kumble resigned from the post before the West Indies series due to differences with skipper Virat Kohli.

After the Kumble-Kohli saga, the CAC will have to be prudent in its choice as the new coach will be given a twoyear contract.

Shastri had initially not applied for the post but when the BCCI extended the deadline for acceptance of applications till July 9, the former skipper jumped into the fray and suddenly became the hot favourite.

Given his cordial equation with Virat, Shastri, who had a successful tenure as team director with India reaching the 50 over World Cup semifinal, is the favourite.

However, it is still not clear what would be the view point of Sourav Ganguly, with whom Shastri had a very public spat with both taking potshots at each other.

Shastri had then alleged that Ganguly wasn’t present when he was being interviewed via Skype. Ganguly had responded that had Shastri been serious, he should have appeared in person for the interview.

The other notable candidate is flamboyant opener Sehwag. Sehwag was a genius in his own rights, but his coaching credentials are yet to be proved. A two-year stint as Kings XI Punjab mentor has not yielded the desired results.

Moody can’t be totally ruled out because of his rich credentials as an international and franchise coach. He had coached Sri Lanka to the 2011 World Cup final and guided Sunrisers Hyderabad to an IPL triumph.

Moody had also appeared last year for an interview but lost out to Kumble, who was too big a name to be ignored.