Greg Chappell, John Wright shortlisted

Sharjah, October 17: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has shortlisted Greg Chappell and John Wright for appointment as coach of the Indian cricket team, BCCI secretary J Y lele said here on Tuesday.Talking to UNI, Lele said both Chappell, the former Australian skipper, and Wright, the former New Zealand captain, would reach Chennai on October 22 and meet board officials, including its president AC Muthiah, the next day.Asked whether the BCCI had consulted the players on the appointment of a foreign coach, he said “we have taken their views… they are positive.”On what was the pressing need for choosing a foreign coach for team, the BCCI officials said, “we have had Indian coaches like Sandeep Patil and Madan Lal in the past. We thought we will try foreign coaches also… Let us see how far it will be sucessful.”

He said he could not say at this stage whether the contract with the foreign coach would be performance linked or for a particular period of time. “All this depends on our discussions with them… We can’t say anything at this stage.”

On whether there would be an assistant coach also for the team, Lele said “not at this stage.”Reports in the media had suggested that the team would have an assistant coach also and Roger Binny, Sandeep Patil and K Srikkanth were among the contenders.

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Asked whether the board was satisfied with the Indian team’s performance in the ICC knock-out tournament in Nairobi, Lele said “it was a good performance.”

He was confident that India would win the coming three-Nation Coca-Cola Cup cricket tournament here from October 20 in which Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe are the other teams.

The new coach is likely to take up the charge of the team from November one.