Waking up just about a month ago to hunt for a new coach for its high-profile team, the Indian cricket board today ended up flat on their face after their final pick, South African Graham Ford, turned them down. Team India, which is set to leave within two weeks on a virtually non-stop journey to Ireland, England and the Twenty20 World Cup until September, may now have to fall back on an interim coach until a red-faced BCCI picks up the pieces and starts all over again.Sources said ex-Mumbai batsman Lalchand Rajput, currently chief coach of the National Cricket Academy, was being considered as a front-runner for the job of interim coach.Officials did try another last-minute stunt this evening by frantically touching base England’s John Emburey whom they had rejected in favour of Ford during their Saturday meeting in Chennai. But Emburey was clear: he’s not interested any longer, not after digesting some recent feedback on what coaching this Indian team would mean. Emburey is reported to have told BCCI officials that “after coming to India and taking stock of the situation, I am not interested in the position.” The former off-spinner is also said to have conveyed to the BCCI that Indian cricket has a lot of external pressures that a coach should not be made to face. Anyway, the buzz in the BCCI late this evening was all about roping in an interim coach — a batting coach or even a cricket manager — from within till the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa, with Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh staying on as bowling and fielding coaches, respectively. Meanwhile, the reasons behind Ford choosing not take up the offer have not been officially listed yet, but the BCCI’s decision to give him only a year at the job before a review is understood to be one of them. Besides, the Board did not allow Ford to appoint his own support staff nor did it give him much of an encouragement on the remuneration front. Obviously, with another year left in his Kent contract — Ford is cricket director there — the 46-year-old “family man” opted for the safer route. Strangely enough, the first word on Ford declining the offer today popped on Kent’s cricket website. “I am thankful to the BCCI.I feel I am not ready to take up the offer,” he wrote.
