Coach selection for women\'s team was more difficult than men\'s: Shantha Rangaswamy

Mumbai: Selecting WV Raman as coach of the women's team was 'more difficult' than that of the men's team, according to Shantha Rangaswamy, a member of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) that selected Ravi Shastri as Indian cricket team coach.

Speaking exclusively over the phone as she was returning to Mumbai airport, she said, "There were a lot of controversies back then and people washed dirty linen in public."

"Even though people had said that Shastri would be retained as a coach, we did not go by public influence but chose him on his merits".

"Each candidate was given a 30-minute slot but we were not rigid on that. Shastri took the longest time. His presentation was very impressive, however, it was a tough decision to make".

Each selector marked the scores of the candidates based on five parameters - coaching philosophy, experience, achievements, communication, and knowledge of modern coaching tools. And based on average, Shastri had been retained.

Mike Hessen and Tom Moody stood second and third.

It is also learnt here that Robin Singh and Lalchand Rajput stood at four and five respectively.

Phil Simmons pulled out of the race on Thursday and the selectors were informed about Simmon's decision just before the process began.