The head coach for the Indian men’s cricket team is expected to be picked today. Given the drama that has followed the exit of Anil Kumble and the surprising revelations that came around that time he was nearing the end of his tenure as coach there has been a high level of media glare around this issue. At this time, Ravi Shastri seems to be the front-runner as Virat Kohli and a lot of other members of the team prefer him. However, Indian cricket is always known to throw up surprises. A lot of factors could come into play over here – the less than palatable equation between Ganguly, one of the selectors, and Shastri; the relationship between Moody and Laxman, also one of the selectors; and the backing that Sehwag has from some influential people in the board.
Shastri leading the way
As has been stated already Shastri leads the field of applicants for the coach’s post and he will appear in the interview being conducted by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) that will be led by Ganguly on Skype. Incidentally, the last time around too Shastri had given the interview via Skype. He fell out with Ganguly after pointing out that the latter was not there at the time when he gave the interview. Ganguly had shot back saying that Shastri should have been physically present during the interview if he valued the post of coach so much.
The applicants
Apart from Shastri, there are some other high profile applicants as well. Let us take a brief look at them and their coaching credentials:
- Virender Sehwag – mentor of Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2017
- Tom Moody – former coach of Sri Lanka men’s team, presently the coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad and Melbourne Renegades
- Richard Pybus – former coach of Pakistan and Bangladesh
- Dodda Ganesh – former coach of Goa cricket team
- Lalchand Rajput – present coach of Afghanistan men’s team and former coach of Indian men’s team
- Lance Klusener – former batting coach of Zimbabwe
- Phil Simmons – former coach of Zimbabwe, Ireland, and West Indies
- Rakesh Sharma – present coach of Oman men’s team
- Upendranath Brahmachari – an engineer without any cricketing background
