Many foreigners and Indians in fray for India coach's post: Ajay Shirke

Ajay Shirke

Ajay Shirke, honorary secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) yesterday said that there are many "meritorious" foreign and Indian candidates among the 57 applications they have received following the Board's decision to advertise for the coach's job for the first time.

Ajay Shirke

"All I can say is that there are meritorious foreigners and meritorious Indians," Shirke told reporters at the BCCI headquarters yesterday without revealing the specific number on applications received from foreign and Indian candidates.

He further remained non-committal on whether the BCCI would announce the coach's appointment following the Working Committee meeting slated for June 24 in Dharamsala, the hometown of BCCI president Anurag Thakur.

No deadline
"There is no deadline as such, the process has to be completed and as soon as the process is completed, the final selections will be announced," he said, before explaining the process of finalising the coach. "There was a criteria announced. The first step is to make the list of eligible candidates. Then it will go for further scrutiny and the most eligible candidates will go through a process of interviews and presentations. After all this is done, the best candidate will be finalised," said Shirke.

Meanwhile, there was uncertainty over whether the candidates would be finalised after consulting the high-profile Cricket Advisory Committee comprising Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly. It was formed during late BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya's time, but has largely remained non-functional. Shirke refused to comment on this, however, when asked if the Working Committee would ratify the coach's appointment, he said: "There will be no ratification (by anyone). When it is finalised, it will be announced."