The Kapil Dev-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) will interview six candidates for Team India’s head coach position at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters on Friday (August 16).
All the six short-listed candidates – Mike Hesson, Tom Moody, Robin Singh, Lalchand Rajput, Phil Simmons, and Ravi Shastri – have already been informed about the interview date and time.
“The board have finalized a list of six names based on their experience and qualifications for the post. All the six interviews will be held in Mumbai with different time slots for all the six candidates. The interviews will begin in morning and will go on till 5:30 pm in the evening on August 16,” a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying in CricketNext.
“Shastri is the automatic entry into this process like the rest of the support staff. The CAC will probably rank all the candidates so that BCCI can choose the final candidate on the basis of availability and other conditions. The final decision on how many names will finally be offered to BCCI will be decided by the CAC on the day of the interview,” the official added.
Before leaving for the tour of Windies, Indian skipper Virat Kohli strongly backed Shastri to continue as coach, but with Kapil Dev stating that the views of the captain will not be considered, a new head coach is likely.
Moody and Hesson are the front-runners for the job, but one cannot count out Simmons, who has played a massive role in the growth of Afghanistan Cricket. He was also the coach of the Windies’ side that won the T20 World Cup in 2016.
Robin Singh was associated with the team when India won the inaugural T20 World Cup, while Rajput was the head coach for the same tournament.
Shastri has been with Kohli & Co. for a while now, earlier as the team director and later was appointed the head coach in 2017 – after Anil Kumble’s departure.
