The contenders for the job of India cricket coach has been reduced, it seems, to a two-horse race, with the Board of Control for Cricket in India's six-member committee narrowing down its preference to the two foreigners -- Greg Chappell and Tom Moody.
"Finally, it will be a toss-up between Chappell and Moody," a BCCI source said on Thursday.
The coach's post became vacant after New Zealand's John Wright stepped down after a four-year tenure at the end of the series against Pakistan.
The BCCI formed a committee, comprising president Ranbir Singh Mahendra, former president Jagmohan Dalmiya, secretary S K Nair and former captains S Venkataraghavan, Sunil
Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, to find a successor to Wright.
Former India Test players Mohinder Amarnath and Sandeep Patil, who was national coach earlier, are the other two names shortlisted by the committee.
Board sources said that while skipper Sourav Ganguly favours Chappell, two other senior members of the team, vice-captain Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, prefer Moody.
They also pointed out that the Board may not be able pay the same huge amount as salary to the coach if an Indian were to be picked.
As per the contract between the BCCI and Wright, the former New Zealand captain was paid US $175,000 (approximately Rs.78,77,000) per year. He was also given business class air fare from New Zealand to India thrice a year.
Besides this, Wright was paid Rs 2,000 per day during his stay in India and boarding and lodging were met by the BCCI. The TDS for payment of all these, at 33 per cent, was also met by the Board.
Also, according to the Internal Auditor of the BCCI, the Board will necessarily spend money in foreign exchange because the legal battle going on in a Kolkata court against the Income Tax department's ruling that only 20 per cent of its revenue could be exempted from tax.
Since 1996, the Board's tax has not been assessed by the Department. In 2002, the Board applied to the Apellate Tribunal.
Another source said that during the committee's first meeting in Kolkata on Sunday, each of the five members were asked to give their opinion on the applications received.
It was decided to call the four shortlisted candidates (two foreigners and two Indians) with the final decision to be taken -- only after the interview and the candidate's presentation -- through voting by the five. Nair, being the convenor of the meeting, has no vote.
It was also revealed that Gavaskar had insisted that the Board should invite former Indian players also for the job.
Thus, the Board received the applications from Amarnath and Patil.
The meeting also took note of Amarnath's outburst in 1989-90 after he was dropped from the team. Amarnath had then termed the selectors and the Board secretary (Mahendra) as a "bunch of jokers".
The members also discussed the issue of Patil, who could not pacify Navjot Singh Sidhu during the 1996 tour of England.
Sidhu returned midway through the tour following a row with captain Mohammad Azharuddin.