Reports: Sehwag front runner for India coach job

What’s the story?

According to CricketNext, Ravi Shastri is no longer the frontrunner for the India coach job. It appears that Virender Sehwag is the CAC’s choice for the job. It also seems that the CAC is offering Kohli the option of sticking with their choice, Sehwag, or choosing to go with Ravi Shastri if he felt it would be better for the team.

“The CAC met the five candidates available — Shastri, Sehwag, Richard Pybus, Tom Moody and Lalchand Rajput. And while everyone put in a good presentation, three men who stood out were Shastri, Sehwag, and Moody.

However, after much deliberation and looking at the pros and cons, the CAC believes that Sehwag is the right candidate for the job as he impressed with his vision for the 2019 World Cup,” an inside source said.

In case you didn’t know…

The CAC announced last evening that they will wait for captain Virat Kohli to return from North America to speak with him about the coaching job before revealing it to the public. The five candidates interviewed were Richard Pybus (Director of Cricket- West Indies), Tom Moody (Coach- Sunrisers Hyderabad), Ravi Shastri (Former Team Director of India), Virender Sehwag (Director of cricket- Kings XI Punjab) and Lalchand Rajput (Coach- Afghanistan).

Phil Simmons was the only shortlisted candidate unavailable for an interview. Until this report, it was widely accepted that Ravi Shastri was going to be announced as the new coach in the next few days.

The details

The argument of the coach vs the captain has been a resounding one since Anil Kumble’s resignation and there have been heated debates on who should run the team and what role the captain should have in appointing the coach.

In other sports, like football, the manager is the supreme authority in the club, taking more responsibility than the captain for wins and losses, whereas, in other cricket teams, it is the captain that reigns supreme on the field and in the public eye, while the coach focuses on backroom organization.

The CAC has perhaps thought it fit that Kohli chooses between the CAC-recommended candidate and his own personal choice, an unprecedented move in modern cricket history. While it gives the Indian captain undue power, which could very possibly backfire in an explosive fashion, the CAC sees the merit in giving the captain the final say.

“It was then decided that Kohli should be brought into the scene and the skipper should make the call because, at the end of the day, it is the captain who will have to spend time with the coach and the equation cannot be compromised,” the source explained about this dynamic.

The presentation put up by Sehwag was interesting on two counts. One, his plan for the 2019 World Cup impressed the CAC, and two, he stressed the importance of the backroom staff remaining in the shadows, while the captain leads ‘his’ team in the spotlight. Ravi Shastri’s presentation was also said to impress.

What’s next?

This leaves Kohli in a somewhat awkward position. On one hand, his personal choice would have been Ravi Shastri, given his good rapport with him and on the other hand, it would be difficult for Kohli to flagrantly disobey the recommendations of the CAC, a committee made up of names and faces that are very difficult to say no to.

Kohli’s relationship with Sehwag is reportedly pretty good, and would not pose a threat of going the route of the Kohli-Kumble debacle. Kohli will have to make a decision soon, as the team departs for Sri Lanka at the end of this week. The coach will be put on a multi-year contract, possibly until the end of the 2019 World Cup.

Author’s take

What does India want in a coach? In terms of tactics, anything Ravi Shastri or Virender Sehwag have to offer will be obsolete. The tactics should be based on the analytics team, not the coach’s experiences, and consequently, the coach often acts more like a team manager and general go-to guy.

He’s there for support, technical or otherwise, and to give the team direction when the captain is lost. Apart from that, his role is mainly operational. Thus, the coach, especially in an experienced team like India’s, is more of a presence in the dressing room, someone who keeps a team motivated and together.

They aren’t there to coach the team technically, the specific coaches are in place for that. While Shastri may have more experience, Sehwag brings a more relaxed attitude to the dressing room. He will be ready to put himself on the line for the team, a quality essential for a country that does not even have a cricket players’ union, and his intentions to allow Kohli to run his team the way he wants is what the team needs.

Shastri is a welcome figure in the Indian dressing room, but his spinelessness in the face of the BCCI makes him a liability when the team needs him to stand up for them.

While Sehwag may seem all fun and games off the field, it’s essential that he is given the correct amount of seriousness. He brings a calm and relaxed environment, essential for cricketers who lead rigorous and unbelievably regimented lives, combined with a fighting attitude once the game starts.