Sehwag applies for coach job

Former opening batsman Virender Sehwag is the most prominent name to apply for the post of chief coach of Indian cricket team.

The post will fall vacant when Anil Kumble’s term comes to an end after the Champions Trophy.

While Kumble is an automatic entry into the selection process, the other main personalities in the fray are Australian Tom Moody and Englishman Richard Pybus. The two Indians among the applicants are former fast bowler Dodda Ganesh and former India ‘A’ coach Lalchand Rajput. However, it is the entry of Sehwag — one of India’s greatest ever game-changers — that makes the contest for the position very interesting.

Sehwag doesn’t have any coaching experience apart from mentoring IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab and recently, it was the BCCI top brass that convinced him to apply. One of India’s biggest match-winners, Sehwag played 104 Tests and 251 ODIs for India scoring 8,586 and 8,273 runs, respectively.

Moody, who has coached Sri Lanka, is the present coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad. A two-time World Cup winner (1987 and 1999), Moody was an important member of Australia’s limited overs side till the late 1990s.

Pybus has coached Pakistan and is the Director of Cricket for the West Indies Cricket Board. Moody and Rajput had applied for the job last year too.

Kumble has been in the news for the last couple of weeks, with his supposed rift with captain Virat Kohli garnering attention.

The BCCI’s decision to issue a communication, calling for applications for the job, also was construed as an indication of the Board’s unhappiness with the former Indian captain.

In England, BCCI’s acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary rubbished the suggestion of a rift between Kohli and Kumble. Speaking to reporters in Birmingham, where the team will play their opener against Pakistan on Sunday, Chaudhary said reports of a rift were a media creation.

He also rubbished the suggestion that there was something amiss in the way the BCCI went about the coach selection process. The Cricket Advisory Committee, comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and V V S Laxman, will choose the next coach.