Kolkata: Former cricketer and one of the most successful India captain Sourav Ganguly is open to coaching the Indian cricket team in the future. Speaking to the scribes at an event in a city hotel, Ganguly made it clear that he would also want to appear for an interview in near future.
The former captain, who is a member of the BCCI Cricket Advisory Committee along with VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar is being entrusted to interview the shortlisted candidates for the post of India coach and send the name of the selected candidate to BCCI to get it ratified in the forthcoming working committee meeting in Dharamsala on June 24.
“I have never had the chance of giving an interview (for the team India coaching job). Hopefully someday will sit for it,” Ganguly said at an event here where he announced the name of his book — ‘A century is not enough’.
The book is not an autobiography though and deals with the challenges faced by sportspersons. Ganguly is working with veteran journalist Gautam Bhattacharya to write it and will be published by Juggernaut Books next year.
The 43-year-old said, “It’s amazing how life is. Twenty years back I first played for the country. Now I have the opportunity to select a coach. I messed it up in 2005-06 (indirectly pointing to the appointment of Greg Chappell when he was captaining India) and I have been given the opportunity again.”
“Honestly two and a half years ago, I was thinking of being here myself, and now I am selecting one.”
“This time I have support from Sachin, Laxman and the BCCI secretary, so hopefully we will be selecting the right person,” the former southpaw added.
After the interviews, the committee will recommend the names to BCCI, to get it ratified by the working committee on June 24 at Dharamsala. The board’s working committee, which will meet on the final day of the BCCI conclave is likely to put the rubber stamp on the new head coach, a post which has been lying vacant since Zimbabwean Duncan Fletcher’s contract ended in March 2015.