Indian national team will soon get a permanent manager. The decision was taken by the BCCI top brass and coach Anil Kumble and captain Virat Kohli during a meeting for team selection on Monday in Mumbai.
Earlier, coaches like John Wright and Greg Chappell, in particular, had called for a permanent manager on the lines of Goolam Rajah and Mohammed Moosajee of South Africa, Steve Bernard of Australia, Phil Neale of England and Mike Sandle of New Zealand and even Richie Richardson of West Indies.
This move will change the existing policy of having representatives of state associations as managers, something that has been generally an approach to appease the state association to win their votes in crucial time.
Currently, the appointments are made on a series by series basis. Someone like Ranjib Biswal had held the posts for a longer duration. Even that appointment was not a professional arrangement. The BCCI sources say the new manager will be appointed after a thorough and robust process that will culminate with an interview.
Over the years, the Indian team’s foreign coaches appealed in their demands for a permanent manager Chappell in particular used to be very upset with the temporary arrangements and he had gone on record several times demanding manager for the long term.
R Sridhar is reelected as India’s fielding coach
Meanwhile, BCCI recalled R Sridhar as team India’s fielding coach. The former Hyderabad spinner, who had worked under Ravi Shastri, was dropped from the team set up for the tours of Zimbabwe and West indies. Abhay Sharma had taken his place and Sridhar then joined Rahul Dravid’s India A team which is currently touring Australia. Sridhar will join the Indian Test team in Kanpur before the first Test against New Zealand on September 22. Coach Anil Kumble is understood to have demanded his recall.