Eligible candidates to be interviewed for coach's job: BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke

Mumbai: BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke said today that the applications received for the Indian cricket team’s head coach’s post from 57 candidates would be pruned before the short-listed names would be called for interviews. “The first step is to make the list from 57 to the eligible and then it will go for further scrutiny and then the most eligible candidates will go through a process of interviews, presentations. All of this will be done and the best candidate will be finalised,” Shirke told reporters here. [caption id=“attachment_2834918” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Ajay Shirke. BCCI[/caption] The Board had invited applications for the post and some high-profile names such as former captain Anil Kumble, former Test all rounder and ex-team director Ravi Shastri and current selection panel chief Sandeep Patil are among the 57 who have applied for the coveted and high-profile job. Shirke was non committal on when the new full-time head coach for the team would be finalised. “There was a criteria announced, so as per the criteria whoever will be eligible, that will be announced. There is no deadline as such, the process has to be completed and as soon as the process is completed, the final selections will be announced,” he quipped. “All I can say is that there are meritorious foreigners and meritorious Indians (who have sought the job),” he added. Shirke said that all Test match staging associations have been asked to send in suggestions to the BCCI for attracting more spectators for the most traditional form of the game which would be deliberated on June 24 at the Board’s Working Committee meeting in Dharamsala. “Test cricket has been experiencing reducing viewership. The president (Anurag Thakur) is very keen that side of the game should also be developed and not be neglected. Therefore we have asked all the staging associations to make suggestions to improve attendances and each of them is going to come up with ideas and there will be an exchange of ideas,” said Shirke. “This exercise is to make sure that there will be more attendance and it will be deliberated during the working committee meeting in Dharamsala,” he added.