Coach-to-be: Virender Sehwag or Ravi Shastri?
While Virat Kohli's choice seems to be the latter, the former has the backing from BBCI treasurer!
While Ravi Shastri is Team India captain Virat Kohli’s choice as coach, Virender Sehwag is BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary’s, according to sources.
It is also evident that the team will have an Indian coach and not a foreigner. As per highly placed sources close to the BCCI, Anirudh Chaudhry has backed Sehwag’s decision to apply for the post of the coach. In 2015, Sehwag’s decision to play for Haryana was welcomed by Anirudh Chaudhry and Sehwag, who runs an international school in Jhajjar district of Haryana, shares a good rapport with Chaudhry.
While it could not be confirmed if the said BCCI official prompted Sehwag to apply for the post, Sehwag’s CV (indeed the shortest), mentions that he knows all the current players of the Indian team. Seems like, if Chaudhry had his say, there could be a race between Shastri and Sehwag.
That Virat Kohli wants Ravi Shastri as coach again is one way of looking at the current situation. The other is, Shastri never deserved to be removed in the first place.
– Ayaz Memon, sports writer
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“Currently, no other candidate is the front runner but one never knows. We still have a few days more to receive the applications,” added the source. “Yes, Viru is outspoken on social media,” the source admitted, “But then, if he is appointed, he would be instructed to keep his mouth shut. Our fear is that he would just say, ‘so what?’, if India loses a match or a series. That would surely ruffle the feathers of important people.
Amidst all this, it is also learnt that there has been an attempt to repair the relationship between Shastri, (dumped last year by the Cricket Advisory Committee — CAC) and Saurav Ganguly.
Interestingly, one of the CAC members has confirmed that the BCCI is yet to forward the CVs of all the applicants for the post so far, hinting that Virat’s choice will be given weightage.