Kolkata: Former India captain Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman will be interviewing the shortlisted candidates for the post of India coach in Kolkata tomorrow. As many as 21 shortlisted candidates will be giving a presentation in front of the Cricket Advisory Committee which includes Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, with former BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale as its co-ordinator. Sachin though will be joined by the committee over video conferencing from London.
BCCI’s high-profile Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), held their first meeting in this regard at the Cricket Centre in Mumbai on Saturday.
Fifty seven applicants had applied for the post of India coach. Out of which 21 were shortlisted by the BCCI office. Since a few high-profile candidates like Kumble do not meet all the criteria (he hasn’t coached any international or First Class team, nor has he passed any course from the National Cricket Academy), the Cricket Advisory Committee was given the freedom to interview anyone outside this list of 21 too. It is learnt that the committee has shortlisted a few candidates, who will now have to appear for an interview on June 21 in Kolkata.
The interview will start at a city hotel from 1:30 pm . Top Indian contenders like Ravi Shastri , Anil Kumble, Praveen Amre and Venkatesh Prasad are all likely top be present in Kolkata.
Some aspirants who could not travel to Kolkata will be interviewed through video conferencing. The interviews had to take place in Kolkata as Ganguly was not able to travel out of city due to personal commitments.
With time running out, the committee has little time to recommend a coach before the Working Committee meeting, which is supposed to ratify the decision, on June 24 in Dharamshala.
“In case the CAC takes a little more time, the BCCI working committee can always authorise the president (Anurag Thakur) and secretary to approve the recommendation of the CAC about the new coach,” said Shirke.