Chief selector Sandeep Patil applies for India coach’s role

ByAmlan Majumdar, SportsCafe Editor

06/04/2016

Sandeep Patil, chief selector of the Indian cricket team, has expressed his interest in taking up the role of chief coach of the senior team. The BCCI has recently invited applications for the position, and Patil is one of the first big names to have sent his CV to the BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke.

“Yes, I have applied for Indian team coach job,” Sandeep Patil told The Indian Express.

The BCCI has listed nine criteria for the appointment of this post and one of them was the ability to communicate in Hindi or one of the Indian languages. However, the governing body had later rectified the criteria to “the ability to communicate in an Indian language is desirable but by no means mandatory”. It clearly hints that the BCCI is preferably looking for an Indian coach this time around.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), earlier this week, had invited applications for the Team India head coach, a position which has been vacant since Duncan Fletcher’s contract ended after the World Cup in 2015. The deadline for applying to the post is June 10, as BCCI President Anurag Thakur had announced earlier.

The BCCI also wants the candidate to have “successfully coached a cricket team of any of the member countries of the ICC, at the first class or at the International level." This leaves Daniel Vettori, heavily preferred by ODI captain Virat Kohli, in a tough situation as the Kiwi has only coached in the IPL and his proficiency in Hindi is also doubtful. Rahul Dravid may also be considered ineligible as his stints with Delhi Daredevils, India A, and U-19 teams do not meet the requirements.

However, Sandeep Patil does satisfy this criteria having coached the Kenyan national team. He guided the minnows to a semi-final spot in the 2003 World Cup.

Former team director Ravi Shastri is touted as the frontrunner for the job, though, with Bharat Arun and Lalchand Rajput also set to apply for the job. Bharat has been the team’s bowling coach for the past couple of years. Winning manager of the 2007 World T20 team Rajput has also coached the India ‘A’ team for a number of years.

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