On Friday (August 16), the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev, former India head coach Anshuman Gaekwad and ex-India women’s team captain Shantha Rangaswamy will interview six candidates for the role of coach of the Indian men’s cricket team.
The BCCI reviewed applications on August 13, and in accordance with the board’s new constitution, the post will be picked by the CAC while the national selection panel, headed by MSK Prasad, will conduct the interviews of the support staff applicants.
The top job, that of the India’s head coach, is expected to be announced on August 16 while the various roles inside the Indian team management, including bowling coach and batting coach and fielding coach, could be revealed next week.
Current India coach Ravi Shastri and the rest of his support staff – batting coach Sanjay Bangar, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar are automatic entrants into the process, having been given a 45-day extension for the tour of the West Indies tour that started last week.
Shastri aside, who are the other five shortlisted candidates for India’s coach?
Hesson, who coached New Zealand to the 2015 Cricket World Cup final, is highly regarded. Described by Brendon McCullum as “the best coach the Blackcaps have ever had”, Hesson guided the team to new heights across all three formats for six years. Under his tutelage, New Zealand played 53 Tests for 21 wins and 13 draws and won 65 of 119 one-day internationals and 30 of 59 T20s.
In 2018, Hesson was named coach of KXIP in the IPL. The franchise finished sixth on the IPL 2019 points table, and earlier this month Hesson stepped down from the role. The New Zealander has been linked with the roles of head coach of Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Rajput, a former India opener, has previously been in charge of India’s coaching set-up during their World T20 triumph in 2007. He has also coached Afghanistan and Zimbabwe at international level, Mumbai Indians in the IPL and served as the director of the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
Rajput has earlier applied for the role of India coach.
Former Australia allrounder Moody, who played 76 ODIs and eight Test matches between 1987 and 1999 – and was part of two World Cup-winning sides – was until recently the head coach of IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad. Under his tenure across seven seasons, SRH won an IPL trophy in 2016 and made the final in 2018.
Following his retirement from cricket in 2000-01, Moody joined English county Worcestershire as director of cricket and in 2005 was named coach of Sri Lanka. Under his watch, Sri Lanka reached the final of the 2007 World Cup. Once that relationship ended, Moody returned home to coach Western Australia until in 2013 he landed the coach’s role with SRH. His other stints include being director of cricket in the Caribbean Premier League, with BBL franchise Melbourne Renegades since 2014 and in the Pakistan Super League as of 2017.
Moody had previously applied twice for role of India coach, in 2005 and 2016, losing to Greg Chappell and Anil Kumble.
A talented allrounder in his playing days, Simmons has a rich history of coaching international teams. He has had two stints as a coach with West Indies and has also coached teams like Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan.
During an eight-year stint with Ireland, Simmons guided them to the 2011 and 2015 World Cups and has also oversaw wins over Test nations like England, West Indies and Zimbabwe. His biggest achievement came with West Indies during the 2016 World T20, where he guided them to their second T20 title. However, he was sacked by the WICB in September 2016 due to “differences in culture and strategic approach”.
From December 2017 until after the 2019 World Cup, Simmons was head coach of Afghanistan. His tenure did not end on a positive note.
Robin Singh played 136 ODIs and one Test match for India from 1989 to 2001. Post retirement, he has forged a career as a coach of T20 franchises across the world.
In the IPL, Singh was head coach of Deccan Chargers in 2008 and has since worked with Mumbai Indians as head coach and then batting coach. Outside of India, he has been associated with Barbados Tridents in the CPL, Khulna Titans in the BPL, Uva Next in Sri Lanka’s T20 competition and Bloem City Blazers in South Africa’s T20 Global League.
He also worked with T10 Cricket League franchise Kerala Kings and has coached the USA at international level.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.