With less than 48 hours to go for the Board of Control for Cricket in India to interview candidates for the national team coach's job, former India medium pacer Balwinder Singh Sandhu threw his hat into the ring.
"I feel I should also be one of the contenders for the national job. If not as a regular coach, at least as a bowling coach," Sandhu, a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning Indian team, told reporters on Tuesday.
Defending his claim, Sandhu said he has the experience and qualifications and wants the BCCI to consider his candidature.
The BCCI has shortlisted Greg Chappell, Tom Moody, Desmond Haynes and Mohinder Amarnath and would be interviewing them on Thursday.
Refusing to join issue on appointing of foreign coaches, he said, "It is for the BCCI to decide its policy."
Sandhu, who has been in coaching since nine years, fine-tuning teams from Mumbai, Maharashtra, Orissa and Baroda and currently bowling coach at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, said earlier Indian players had no proper training in coaching unlike their foreign counterparts.
He said the BCCI should to consider all former cricketers who have experience in coaching for the coach's job and disagreed that the current crop of players is keen on being trained under a foreign coach.
He said he does not represent any state to recommend his name and thus was communicating through the press.