BCCI to advertise for India chief coach job

Mumbai, May 22 (IANS) New Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Anurag Thakur on Sunday said the board will advertise for the vacant post of the national team's chief coach where interested candidates can put their names forward.

Thakur took over the cricket board’s top post fromm Shashank Manohar, who stepped down to take up the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman’s job.

After the departure of previous coach Duncan Fletcher post-2015 World Cup, BCCI appointed former India cricketer Ravi Shastri as the team director, Sanjay Bangar as the batting coach, Bharat Arun as the bowling coach and R. Sridhar as the fielding coach. But their tenure ended after the 2016 World Twenty20 campaign.

Former India skipper Rahul Dravid’s name for the top post has been doing the rounds but Thakur said BCCI wants to advertise for the post so all interested candidates can apply.

“We will advertise for the post of coach today, and by June 10 anyone who is willing to take up post of coach can apply to the BCCI. Then the list will be shortlisted and then the candidate will be finalised after that,” Thakur told reporters here.

“I would like to put it on record that Ravi Shastri and other support staff have done a good job in the past and the team has performed well under their leadership,” he said.

The 41-year-old Thakur, who is also Bharatiya Janata Party's Lok Sabha member from Himachal Pradesh further added that the application is open to everyone from current support staff, or from outside of India or within India.

“It is open for everyone -- whether the current support staff, or from outside of India or within India, anyone who is keen to be a coach with the Indian team or take other responsibilities -- bowling, batting, fielding coach or the head coach -- all these position would be available,” he said.

“If you have to go for the best you can’t go with limited choices. So we are keeping it open. We want people to come who are interested. They can come forward, apply for the post and then we can look at the proposals, who are the applicants and who could be the best for BCCI,” Thakur added.

Thakur also said that they are planning to send a chef with the team during India’s forthcoming Test tour of the West Indies.

“We will also make sure during the West Indies tour, where food is a constraint, we will send a chef if we need to, to take care of the vegetarians in the team,” Thakur said.