After Anil Kumble’s unceremonious exit as the head coach of the Indian cricket team, Ravi Shastri’s is rumoured to be favourite to take charge of the dressing room, his stint with the team during the last World Cup helping tilt things in his favour with the Cricket Advisory Committee(CAC) that is looking applications. Before Shastri was convinced to throw his hat in the ring again, it was Virender Sehwag who was favoured over Australian Tom Moody but the team and more importantly the captain Virat Kohli want Shastri, who they like and trust after Shastri served as interim manager during the last World Cup. After the spat with Kumble, the CAC and BCCI will be wary of further infighting and will want to turn the focus back on the game. Kumble’s tweet that linked to a farewell message in which he spoke of untenable differences with the captain was followed by Virat Kohli deleting a year-old tweet welcoming Kumble as head coach. The extent of souring of relationships between the two was detailed in the team manager’s report that spoke of a communication breakdown between the two during the Champions Trophy. With India slated to tour England, Australia and South Africa in difficult away matches, the management will want to quell all the scandals so Kohli and company can focus on the tough matches ahead.
Shastri, whose shrewd cricketing brain has earned plaudits in his run as the team’s manager, will be favoured heavily given his great rapport with the players, especially captain Kohli. However, the CAC will give all candidates a fair hearing the day after the deadline on July 9, which is when the interviews will be conducted by Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar, the member of the CAC. Besides Shastri, Sehwag and Moody, there is also Phil Simmons, Venkatesh Prasad, Richard Pybus, Dodda Ganesh and Lalchand Rajput in the queue.
