Two months after Australian Greg Chappell quit as coach of the Indian cricket team following its disastrous performance in the World Cup, Graham Ford of South Africa was on Saturday night appointed to the post for one year.
The appointment of 46-year-old Ford, a former South African coach, came at a two-hour meeting of a Special Committee set up by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which also interviewed former England spinner John Emburey.
"The seven-member Special Committee headed by BCCI President Sharad Pawar has decided to appoint Ford as the Indian team coach initially for one year," Board Treasurer N Srinivasan told media persons in Chennai.
"Ford will intimate the BCCI before its working committee meeting in Delhi on June 12 as to when he would be able to join the team," Srinivasan said.
Srinivasan said as per the cricket board Constitution the BCCI working committee has to approve the appointment of Ford.
Ford, who took over from late Bob Woolmer as South African coach, had guided the team between 1999 and 2002, one of the most turbulent times for the country's cricket in the wake of match-fixing scandal.
He then joined Kent County Club in 2004 as Director of Coaching where he has a contract running till 2008.
The Special Committee, which included three former India captains, had invited Ford and 54-year-old Emburey to make a presentation after its June 4 meeting in Bangalore when it also rejected an application by former Sri Lankan and Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore.
Ford had an edge over Emburey as he was the favourite among the senior members of the Indian team.
The Indian team had Ravi Shastri, one of the former captains on the special committee, as interim cricket manager on last month's tour of Bangladesh.
Besides Pawar, Shastri and Srinivasan, former captains S Venkataraghavan and Sunil Gavaskar, BCCI Joint Secretary M P Pandove and Secretary Niranjan Shah were the other members on the committee.
Chappell's exit brought to an end a tumultuous two-year period, which began promisingly with a 16-ODI winning streak before descended into acrimony among the coach and the players, particularly with Sourav Ganguly.
It ended with India's humiliating first round exit in the recent World Cup in the Caribbean.
To Chappell's credit, he put an end to the 'star' culture in the side and put team's success above that of the individual player.
But the players found the 58-year-old former Test captain's ways too tough to cope with and alleged that they 'felt insecure' of their place in the team.
His reports invariably found its way to the media through leaked text messages and emails.
The Board, keen to put an end to player power, seemed to turn its eyes the other way until Sachin Tendulkar spoke out against the Australian after the World Cup debacle.
