Team India to get new coach ahead of South Africa series: reports

Mumbai: In all certainty, the Indian Cricket Team will see its new coach ahead of the two-month long series against South Africa. BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur on Monday said that the decision on the new coach will be taken soon.

South Africa are scheduled to tour India from October for 4 Tests, 5 ODIs and 3 T20s in 72-day long tour. "The three-member cricket committee, which includes Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, has been entrusted with the job of suggesting names for the post of chief coach. BCCI will wait for their suggestions," Thakur told ‘The Times of India’ in a report.

"Ravi Shastri has been the given the charge of the team till the Sri Lanka tour and BCCI will probably take a call on the coaching staff before the South Africa series. If the cricket committee suggests the name of a coach, the board will pursue it," he added.

Read: India-Pakistan cricket series in doubt after Gurdaspur terror attack

The BCCI appeared to rule out an immediate resumption of Indo-Pak cricket ties in the wake of the Gurdaspur terror attack, in which militants from the across the border are believed to be involved.

There were talks about resumption of bilateral cricket ties between the two nations at the end of this year but Thakur said that it may not be possible under such circumstances.

Asked specifically if India and Pakistan can resume cricket ties, Thakur talked tough and said it was not a possibility now. "Earlier also there was no such decision that the series will take place. Only the PCB has reached out to the BCCI. We were talking on those lines but when you see such attack on India time and again, the Jammu region, now Punjab, where Indians are losing their lives, as an Indian I don't see a possibility to that," Thakur told a TV channel.