Sport - Cricket

BCCI committee endorses Kirsten’s selection as the coach

KOLKATA: South Africa’s Gary Kirsten’s appointment as the new Indian cricket coach received the endorsement of a high-powered committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) here on Saturday.

The meeting of the BCCI office-bearers, headed by its president Sharad Pawar, deliberated on the coach issue, but stopped short of formally announcing Kirsten’s appointment.

Others present at the meeting were BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah, Vice-President Rajiv Shukla, CAO Ratnakar Shetty and Treasurer N. Srinivasan.

“The Appointment of (Gary) Kirsten as the coach is more or less confirmed,” Shah said after the meeting.

“We need to look into some nitty-gritties before his appointment is finalised. We hope to announce his name as the coach in a week’s time,” he added.

Briefing reporters, Shukla said that the Board had also decided to have the current team manager Lalchand Rajput as the assistant coach for the Australian tour starting later this month.

Shukla added that Kirsten would be joining the team for a brief period in Australia. He is expected to join the team as a full-time coach after the Australia tour.

“We decided to have (Lalchand) Rajput as the assistant coach for the Australia tour because Gary Kirsten will be on and off during that tour,” Shukla said.

He added that Kirsten would be replying to the BCCI’s offer-letter in a week’s time after which the appointment would be formalised.

Apart from Rajput, who has been working as the cricket manager of the team since the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa, Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh will continue as the bowling and fielding coaches respectively.

Shah said medium-pacer R.P. Singh had gone through a fitness test supervised by the team physio, John Gloster, who had asked him to be “cautious” about his injury.

Meanwhile, S. Sreesanth also had a fitness test during the tea break on Saturday.

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