Virender Sehwag sends tweet-sized application for India's coaching job; BCCI seek full resume

Virender Sehwag made his name in international cricket as a fearless and explosive batsman who paid little heed to cricketing protocol. Apart from his few marathon innings in Tests and One Day Internationals, his career was characterised with small yet effective cameos that left bowling attacks for dead.

After retirement, his approach has hardly changed. Despite resting his bat, Sehwag continues to charm his fans with his frequent one-liners on Twitter that often deal with issues few celebrated people would like to weight in on. This approach on social media has served him well as he remains a regular feature in the headlines.

Recently, rumours of a possible discord between Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble have been rife, especially after BCCI decided to advertise for candidates for India’s coaching job. Sehwag who decided to put his hat in the ring, hasn’t done himself a huge favour by taking his obsession for one-liners to an altogether different level.

According to a report in the Indian Express , Sehwag sent a two-line application for the coach’s job. The application said that he is a “mentor and a coach of Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League and has played with all these (Indian) boys before.”

A BCCI source told the newspaper that the board has asked Sehwag to send his full resume along with his application, excusing the former Indian opener of the earlier blunder considering this was his first application to any post of this level.

Besides Kumble and Sehwag, Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody, Englishman Richard Pybus, Afghanistan coach Lalchand Rajput and Dodda Ganesh have applied for the job, while the application of Australian pacer Craig McDermott will not be considered as it came after the deadline.

Sehwag, who was part of the commentary panel in England for the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, has returned to India and will be interviewed by the members of the Cricket Advisory Committee comprising of Sehwag’s former teammates — Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman — through Skype.

However, in spite of receiving six applications for the post, a source who was part of the Committee of Administrators appointed to oversee the implementations of the Lodha reforms in BCCI, told Cricketnext  that establishing a truce between Kohli and Kumble would be the best possible solution for the future of Indian cricket.

“While it is very difficult to comment from the outside, it looks like the ideal situation would be Kohli and Kumble burying the hatchet. But let’s see if that is a possibility,” the official told Cricketnext.

It will be interesting to see how Sehwag will react to the situation, and also how much his two-line application for the post of India’s coaching job affects his chances to succeed Kumble. Meanwhile, the fact that India have made a great start to the Champions Trophy in England with a 124-run victory over Pakistan might be an indication that the captain and coach have either made truce or kept their differences on the back seat.

In either case, it enhances Kumble’s chances of retaining the role he currently occupies.