It’s remarkable how often Sunil Gavaskar—with his immeasurable on- and off-field cricketing experience—tends to make correct predictions. Before the 1999 World Cup final, when a reporter asked him who could be Man of the Match, he said without batting an eyelid: “Shane Warne”. A correct call, of course. This week, Gavaskar predicted his former India teammate, Ravi Shastri, will be the frontrunner for the post of head coach of the Indian team. We will soon know if the Little Master has got it right again, as the BCCI is set to announce the winner on July 10—also Gavaskar’s birthday.
The BCCI-appointed Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and V.V.S. Laxman, is scheduled to conduct interviews based on a possible shortlist of names that the BCCI would forward to it, and choose the chief coach for a two-year term, ending with the 50-over World Cup in 2019. But before that, there is the matter of the cricketers’ minds. BCCI CEO Rahul Johri is scheduled to be in...
