The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday announced an ad-hoc committee to conduct interviews of eligible candidates for selection of Head Coach for Team India (Senior Women).
The panel consists of former Indian cricketers Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy.
According to BCCI, the interviews will be conducted on December 20th at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.
The application deadline ends on December 14 and Manoj Prabhakar, Herschelle Gibbs and Dimitri Mascarenhas are among the applicants.
The BCCI is expected to name the new coach before the New Zealand tour begins on January 24. The tour comprises three ODIs and as many T20 Internationals.
Advertisement
The women's team is a divided lot at the moment with Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana seeking Ramesh Powar's extension while the seniormost player Mithali Raj is against such a move.
Powar's term ended on November 30, a week after India lost the semi-finals of the World T20 to England. The team management dropped Mithali for the knock-out fixture, triggering a huge controversy.
Mithali went on to accuse Powar and Edulji of trying to destroy her and being biased against her.
Powar, on his part, accused Mithali of threatening to retire midway into the World T20 after being denied the opening slot and creating chaos in the team.
Advertisement
On Monday, in a letter to Vinod Rai, CoA member Diana Edulji, said Powar should be given an extension at least until the New Zealand tour, and scrap the selection process.
But the CoA chairman decided against his colleague Edulji's call. Rai, in his reply, made it clear that scrapping the coach selection process is out of the question as the BCCI has already invited applications for the job.
"Diana sent an email to Rai asking for an extension of Powar as both Harmanpreet and Mandhana asked for it. She wanted the interview process to be scrapped," a BCCI official privy to the development told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
"However, Rai replied by saying that scrapping the process is not possible as the advertisement for the job has already been issued," the official added.
(With PTI inputs)
