Former India captain Anil Kumble has been appointed the next head coach of the national cricket team, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced in Dharamsala on Thursday.
The former leg-spinner, who will take charge from India’s four Test series in the West Indies in July-August, will fill the role for a year, said BCCI president Anurag Thakur. He was picked out of the 57 candidates who had answered BCCI's call for job applications in June.
The 45-year-old fell short of one of the BCCI’s criteria for applicants – prior coaching experience at international or first-class level. But that did not dissuade the selection panel of former cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman.
Kumble is the first Indian to be appointed full-time India coach since Kapil Dev was picked in 1999. Dev had quit a year later, and since then all head coaches have been foreigners.
Former all-rounder and commentator Ravi Shastri, who was director of Team India until April, was one of the 21 shortlisted candidates along with Kumble. His loss to Kumble gave Twitter an easy opportunity to crack a few jokes at his expense.
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