John Wright pips Geoff Marsh to coach's post

Former New Zealand skipper John Wright got the nod from the Cricket Board ahead of the other two contenders, Australians Geoff Marsh and Greg Chappell, to coach the Indian team.

Former Board President Raj Singh Dungarpur told PTI here today "Wright was the right man for the job as Marsh could not meet our conditions while Chappell demanded an astronomical figure."

"We had spoken to Wright and Chappell earlier while we had long discussions with Marsh for the last couple of days. Marsh finds it difficult to leave his family for a long period of time while we (Board) insisted that he be with the team for most part of the year which was not acceptable to him," he added.

"The details of the contract would be made public to the media in the evening by Board President A C Muthiah," Dungarpur said.

In all probability, Marsh will take over as a consultant to the Board, a job earlier held by former Australian Captain Bob Simpson.

The panel to select the coach consisted of Muthiah, Dungarpur, chief coach of the National Cricket Academy Hanumant Singh and former Indian team skipper and now an international umpire S Venkatraghavan.