Kolkata: The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) on Monday decided to defer the announcement of naming the new Indian coach and had said that they would first need to talk to Indian skipper Virat Kohli for him to give in his inputs.
But on Tuesday, the Vinod Rai led Committee of Administrators asked td CAC to name the coach on Tuesday itself after which former team director Ravi Shastri was given the job. On Monday, the CAC announced that they are in, “no hurry” to pick the next coach of the Indian team.
The CAC was a bit surprised by this action of the CoA and as quoted by India Today, CAC member and former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly said, “The COA was party to this decision (to defer the announcement). Need to speak with them to figure out what has changed. I don’t know what is the hurry when there is time.”
Ganguly also added that he would have a word with CoA chief Vinod Rai and would clear the confusion. “All that was announced yesterday was with everyone’s permission and everybody was on board. He (Rai) has got the right (to ask us). The reason we wanted to (hold back) was because Virat is on a holiday to America, and you don’t want to disturb him in the break. If he is available on the phone, we will talk to him.”
The CAC decided to put the selection of the new coach on hold and instead wanted to brief the Indian captain about their decision before making any official announcement. Speaking on this, Ganguly said, “We respect his (Virat’s) decision. At the end of the day it is his team, he is going to lead the team. He (Virat) will be consulted and no, he will not be the main person and he doesn’t want to be the main person.”
The CAC had interviewed five candidates on Monday-Ravi Shastri, Virender Sehwag , Lalchand Rajput, Tom Moody and Richard Pybus. Shastri who had earlier been the team director was the favourite to walk away with the job and his chances were more strong as he had the support of skipper Kohli.
On Tuesday, the CAC named Shastri as Anil Kumble’s successor and also appointed veteran left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan as the bowling coach and the legendary Rahul Dravid (the India U-19 and India A coach) as the batting coach for overseas tours.
Shastri’s first assignment with the Indian team would be the tour of Sri Lanka.