Ravi Shastri reappointed head coach of Indian team till 2021

Mumbai: Ravi Shastri was on Friday re-appointed head coach of the Indian men’s team by the Kapil Dev-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which unanimously felt that the incumbent’s “communication skills and understanding of team issues” stood out.

Shastri, who had the public backing of captain Virat Kohli even before the short-listing was initiated, has been reappointed for a two-year period, ending with the 2021 T20 World Cup in India.

“We have unanimously decided to appoint Ravi Shastri as the head coach of the Indian cricket team as you all were expecting,” CAC head Kapil Dev told mediapersons after the completion of the candidates’ interviews that took place through the day. The three-member CAC also comprised former India coach Anshuman Gaekwad and ex women’s captain Shantha Rangaswamy.

This will be Shastri’s fourth stint with the national team, having served briefly as the Cricket Manager (2007 tour of Bangladesh), Team Director (2014-2016) and head coach (2017-2019). Shastri pipped former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson, Australian Tom Moody and former India teammates Robin Singh and Lalchand Rajput to the post. Former West Indies and Afghanistan coach Phil Simmons pulled out of the race, citing personal reasons.

While Robin, Rajput and Hesson gave in-person presentations, Moody spoke to the panel over Skype from Australia. “After doing all (interviews), Moody was third after our marking and Mike (Hesson), an intelligent, young boy from New Zealand was a close second. It was a very close,” the former India captain said, implying that Rajput and Robin were far behind in the race.

The candidates were primarily marked on five aspects — coaching philosophy, experience, achievements, communication and knowledge of modern tools. A ‘very good’ had a 20-mark weightage while good carried 15. Average was 10 and poor was five.

“Everyone of us gave marks and honestly we never discussed which one of us gave how many marks. When we calculated, it was a very close race, I can tell you. I am not going to get into the details as to how much was the difference but it was a very small number (margin),” said Kapil.

In fact, the 1983 World Cup winning captain said that for him, his former teammate Shastri’s “communication skill” was one of the highlights during his presentation.

“I felt his (Shastri) communication skill was better and she (pointing at Shantha) might have felt something else,” he said. Gaekwad felt that Shastri was “well versed with the Indian cricket system, and knew the boys and their problems well being the current coach.”