India coach likely to be announced on Thursday

BCCI president Anurag Thakur has told reporters in Dharamsala that an announcement on India's head coach will likely be made by Thursday evening.*

"The name of the coach will be announced by 5 pm," Thakur told the news channel ABP Live, after the captains and coaches meeting in Dharamsala on Thursday. "I will be meeting [Ajay] Shirke and [Sourav] Ganguly now and [will] study their report. By 5pm today, we will name the new coach." A BCCI press release in the afternoon stated that Thakur and board secretary Shirke would address a press conference at 5pm.

The BCCI had earlier indicated that the Indian coach would be announced on Friday, after the three-member advisory committee - comprising Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman - asked for more time.

On Tuesday evening, Ganguly had informed the media that they had finished interviewing the shortlisted candidates and would forward their pick to the board's secretary Ajay Shirke on Wednesday.

But Shirke said that the committee wanted to deliberate further on a few "finer points", and hoped that the new India coach would be announced on Friday in Dharamsala, where the inaugural BCCI conclave concludes with the working committee meeting. The BCCI also issued a press release to this effect on Wednesday.

It is learnt that Ganguly has been in favour of an Indian as coach and that he was appreciative of the work put in by the previous group of coaching staff led by Ravi Shastri.

Shastri is one of the finalists for the position of India head coach along with former India captain Anil Kumble. The others in contention are Tom Moody, Stuart Law, Lalchand Rajput, Pravin Amre and Andy Moles.

Ganguly was confident of selecting the right candidate and was thankful for the support he has received from the rest of the panel, which includes former India batsmen Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman and former BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale.

"I once had an opportunity to select the coach," Ganguly told the Hindu. "I thought I messed it up in 2005. I am given that opportunity again. To be honest, two-and-a-half years ago, I was thinking myself whether I would want this job. Now today, I am selecting one," said Ganguly. "Hopefully, we will do it right this time. Luckily, I have got support from Sachin, VVS, the BCCI secretary and the president. Together, we will pick the right person."

There had been speculation in the media that the delay was the result of the committee being unable to contact India's Test captain Virat Kohli for his inputs. But Shirke said the committee had not been given any instructions to talk to Kohli.

* 0608 GMT, June 23. This article was amended to include the statement made by BCCI president Anurag Thakur on Thursday