Kapil-led panel frontrunner to pick India coach

If there is no directive from the apex court on the Cricket Advisory Committee, the CoA might be left with no other alternative but task the Kapil Dev-led committee with picking the India coach, a move that could again divide the Supreme Court-appointed panel.

The Kapil Dev-led ad-hoc committee on Wednesday emerged as the frontrunner to pick the next India cricket coach but a final decision on panel formation would be taken only after the next Supreme Court hearing.

The application deadline for all the coaching roles is July 30.

The Committee of Administrators (CoA) running the Board of Control of Cricket in India had asked the apex court for directions on the continuation of Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman.

However, if there is no directive from the apex court on CAC, the CoA might be left with no other alternative but task the Dev-led committee with picking the national coach, a move that could again divide the Supreme Court-appointed panel.

One thing is certain that no panel would be formed till the next hearing.

The ad-hoc body comprising former India captain Kapil, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy had earlier appointed W V Raman as the Indian women's team coach in December.

Earlier in the day, one of the members confirmed to PTI that the BCCI has approached the ad-hoc committee to pick the men's head coach as well.

Back then, the CoA was a two-member panel -- comprising chairman Vinod Rai and former India captain Diana Edulji, who had called the women's coach selection process unconstitutional.

She had asserted that only the CAC was empowered to do so. CoA is now a three-member body with the appointment of Lt General Ravi Thodge in February.

But with serious doubts over the future of CAC owing to conflict of interest charges, the CoA may have considered it prudent to hand the responsibility to the ad-hoc panel.

While Tendulkar has been cleared of conflict of interest charges, Ganguly and Laxman have been asked to choose one out of their multiple cricketing roles as per the BCCI constitution.

The COA, however, is yet to take a call on the matter.

Dev and Ranagsawamy too fall in the ambit of conflict of interest as they are also responsible for the formation of the players' association as per the new BCCI constitution.

The BCCI on Tuesday invited applications for the men's team support staff, including head coach who will need to be less than 60 years of age with a minimum international experience of two years.

The current support staff comprising incumbent head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, batting coach Sanjay Bangar and fielding coach R Sridhar were given a 45-day extension following the World Cup, covering the West Indies tour from August 3 to September 3.

All of them will get an automatic entry in the recruitment process.