Former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri was appointed the next coach of the Indian cricket team, Acting President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India CK Khanna said on Tuesday evening, according to ANI. Zaheer Khan was named the bowling coach, while Rahul Dravid was appointed the overseas batting coach.
All three have been brought on board with a two-year contract. They will coach Team India till the 2019 World Cup.
The announcement came hours after BCCI Acting Secretary Amitabh Choudhury denied earlier reports that Shastri had been given the job. Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators had asked the BCCI to come to a decision by Tuesday evening.
Shastri had been the front-runner for the post since Anil Kumble’s unceremonious exit last month. He was the Indian team director between August 2014 and June 2016.
On Monday, the BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee led by former cricketer Sourav Ganguly had stated that he, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman would speak to Indian captain Virat Kohli before naming the coach. “We want to have a word with Virat Kohli before finalising [on a name] so that everybody is on the same page,” Ganguly had said, adding that the Indian skipper had not suggested any names for the post.
Besides Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Dodda Ganesh, Lance Klusner, Rakesh Sharma, Lalchand Rajput, Richard Pybus, and an engineer with no cricket background, Upendranath Brahmachari, had applied for the coach’s position.
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