It's a great challenge to coach India, says Geoff Marsh

Former Australian opening batsman Geoff Marsh was interviewed by a five member panel of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in Mumbai on October 31.

The panel comprising Board president AC Muthiah, secretary JY Lele, former Board president Raj Singh Dungarpur, National Cricket Academy director Hanumant Singh and former Indian captain and ICC panel umpire S Venkataraghavan had last month interviewed the other two candidates in the fray, former Australian skipper Greg Chappell and former New Zealand opener John Wright in Chennai.

Speaking to presspersons after the interview, the former Australian coach said that the interview went off satisfactorily. He however added ``I can't discuss it as the board officials will take a decision in a day or two''

Marsh, who was the coach of Australia's World Cup winning side last year, said ``Cricket has been my life and it is hard to get away from this game.'' Hinting that though he had earlier turned his back on the offer citing personal reasons, he was now all set to take up the assignment. Marsh added ``I have had about a year's rest with my family and I think I am ready for a new challenge.''

Commenting on the Indian team's recent performances at Nairobi and Sharjah, Marsh felt that the team possessed a lot of talent. He said ``In the last couple of tournaments they've played some very good cricket.'' Moreover, the Australian opener gave admirable credit to the Indian captain and the two new finds, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan. Marsh said ``Sourav Ganguly is doing a good job as captain and the couple of young kids who have come in have performed well.'' He added that he was looking forward to the challenge of getting the players to perform to the expectations.

Speaking of expectations, Marsh was of the view that it will prove to be a real challenge to be associated with the Indian team since ``not only the players but the whole nation gets involved when India is playing and that makes it more interesting for me to be involved.''

Marsh said that the reason behind the decision to take up coaching again was due to the fact that a few of his contemporaries like Carl Rackemann (Zimbabwe), Steve Rixon (New Zealand), Dav Whatmore (Sri Lanka), Dennis Lillee (MRF Pace Foundation) and Rodney Marsh (National Cricket Academy) are striving hard to impart their skills to certain countries.