Dubai: The air of anticipation over the selection of successor to Anil Kumble will end on Sunday when the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) meets the shortlisted candidates in Mumbai to select the Indian coach.
It remains to be seen if the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising of the trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman announce the new incumbent immediately after the interviews or at a later date.
The 10 applicants in the fray are Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Lance Klusener, Phil Simmons and Rakesh Sharma (Oman national team coach), India’s Lalchand Rajput (currently Afghanistan team coach), former manager Ravi Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Venkatesh Prasad and outsider Upendranath Bramhachari (engineer with no cricketing background.
The CAC, according to unconfirmed sources, has shortlisted six of the 10 candidates — namely Shastri, Sehwag, Moody, Simmons, Pybus and Rajput and quite a few of them may be conducted through Skype.
Klusener, as of now, may be kept on standby but has very little or no chance of getting the job.
Shastri is the obvious front-runner mainly due to his performance as Team India Director from 2014 to 2016.
During this period, he displayed his ability to get the team gel well and also had a healthy working relationship with captain Virat Kohli. Being a former captain, Shastri is also well respected and has in-depth knowledge and ability to analyse the game by having worked as an experienced broadcaster for many years.
Soon after the news about rift between Kumble and captain Kohli surfaced, Sehwag’s name emerged as a suitable candidate for the job. His credentials for the post emerges from his reputation as mentor of the Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League while he also has a good rapport with Kohli.
Rajput was manager of the Indian team that won the inaugural World T20 in 2007 in South Africa while he has also proved his credentials as an excellent coach with India Under-19 and A teams.
Australia’s Tom Moody has very strong credentials. He had coached Sri Lanka to the 2011 World Cup final and also steered Sunrisers Hyderabad to an IPL in 2016. However, the factor that could go against him is that he had appeared for the interview for the same post last year and lost to Kumble. However, his calm approach as a coach and ability to lift the morale of the players makes him a strong candidate should the CAC look for a foreigner again.
West Indies’ Phil Simmons has equally high credentials — proving to be a good coach of teams like Afghanistan and Ireland. He had even lifted West Indies team to creditable victories but the fact that he fought with the West Indies Cricket Board over team selection could go against him.
England’s Richard Pybus, who coached Pakistan in 1999 World Cup when they made the final, has proved as coach who can transform teams into winners. He had won trophies for Titans and Cape Cobras in South Africa. In 2012, he also coached Bangladesh but resigned five months after due to a disagreement over his terms of contract.
