Cricket Advisory Committee Seeks More Time To Appoint India Head Coach

The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC). comprising Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, has deferred the decision to name India’s new coach to an unconfirmed date, stating that the committee will seek captain  Virat Kohli’s inputs before revealing their decision.

Five candidates- Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Lalchand Rajput and Ravi Shastri were interviewed by the CAC on Monday (July 10). And while speculations were rife that the new coach would be revealed after the conclusion of the interview at BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, the three-member panel after an unanimous decision decided to wait for some more days.

“Whatever, I say, I take Laxman and Sachin into confidence. It’s a decision we all three have taken. We have interviewed all the candidates except Phil Simmons who has not been available for the interview and we have decided that we will hold on for the time being for the announcement of the coach. We need a few more days and talk to a few more people especially the captain and then make an announcement because we feel that there is no hurry at the moment,” said Ganguly while addressing the media.

The former India skipper said the team might leave for Sri Lanka for the upcoming full-fledged series without a head coach. The Men in Blue were recently in the Caribbeans without a head coach with the BCCI appointing MV Sridhar as the team manager for the limited-overs series against West Indies.

“For the Sri Lankan tour coming up in a week’s time, board headed by Amitabh (Choudhary), Rahul (Johri), Vinod ji (Rai), Anirudh (Choudhary), the board will probably continue with the same set for the time being,” said Ganguly.

Ganguly further said the CAC is waiting for Kohli to return from America to seek his inputs before taking the final call. With the BCCI confirming it that the new coach would be given a two-year contract, the committee would surely want to avoid the episode that happened with Anil Kumble.

“We want to speak to Virat Kohli, once he is back from America, all three of us, the respective people concerned, we will explain to him that the coaches want to function in a certain way and make sure everybody is on the same page once we make the announcement. Once, we make the announcement, it has to be till the World Cup and to be honest what we have heard form the coaches today is nothing different from what we heard last year and the way things have gone,” the 45-year old said.

Ganguly also had a word of praise for the way Kohli kept himself away from the coach selection process especially after the way Kumble’s spell with the team ended. The former India leg-spinner in a statement had revealed that he chose to walk away after being informed of Kohli’s reservations over his style of functioning.However, Kohli is yet to reveal his side of the story.

“You have to give the credit to Virat that he has totally stayed away from all this. He has no inputs, he has not sent any names. We feel as an advisory committee that he is the captain which is the most important thing in cricket we feel that every one of us needs to be on the same page because for us Indian cricket is more important. We are just a small width, the big width is the players who are going to play and the coach,” Ganguly said.