Who Will Be The Next Indian Cricket Team Coach?

Picking the Indian cricket team's coach can be a crucial decision. A coach's role in cricket is vastly inferior to that in other sports...

- Niji NG

For job hunters in India, here is breaking news. A top position with one of the richest organizations in India has fallen vacant. And the organization is looking for ideal candidates. You will not see the vacancy advertised on employment websites or newspaper classifieds pages. But you can see the details on sports pages of newspapers and websites.

The organization is the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI), and the post is that of Indian cricket team coach. Ravi Shastri, who worked as the Team Director of Indian cricket team, reportedly received an annual package of Rupees Seven Crores. A full-time coach is likely to get even more. Interested? Sorry. Not even IIT or IIM degrees can help you land this job. Only the been-there-and done-that candidates will be considered.

THE COACH-TAKERS

Shastri’s tenure ended with the recently concluded World T-20 Championship, in which West Indies ousted India in the semi finals. BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur told the media that they are in the search for a new coach. He elaborated: “Ravi Shastri’s contract has ended. We are looking at a fulltime coach and the decision will be taken by the Cricket Advisory Committee. There won’t be a Team Director and a full-time coach. It will be only one post and even Ravi’s contract can come up for renewal.”

The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) he was referring to comprises Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. People have been wondering what the committee was doing for Indian cricket. Even Ganguly himself recently stated that he does not know whether such a committee exists. Now we know at least one of the roles of the committee.