New Delhi, July 11 (agencies): Ravi Shastri was named as the next coach of the Indian cricket team, the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced in Mumbai, on Tuesday. Shastri will be the coach of the Indian cricket team till the 2019 World Cup. The announcement was made by the BCCI on behalf of the three-member panel comprising Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly. The decision was taken by the Board led by the CAC on Monday after consultations with captain Virat Kohli. Shastri was appointed as the Director of the team in 2014. Soon after then coach Duncan Fletcher's tenure ended, he was given the additional charge to coach the team till 2016. He was a member of the IPL Governing Council and has served in various capacities at the BCCI. Incidentally, he had lost out to Kumble in the race to become the coach in 2016. However, this was not his first stint with cricket administration. He first served as the interim coach of the Indian cricket team's tour of Bangladesh after an abrupt resignation of then coach Greg Chappell following the disastrous 2007 World Cup campaign. His on-field achievements include playing 80 Test matches and 150 ODIs, where he picked 151 wickets in Tests and scored 11 tons in the format. He was also part of India's 1983 World Cup winning squad. He was also named the Player of the Tournament in the 1985 World Championship of Cricket. On Monday, the panel had interviewed six shortlisted candidates that included Ravi Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Tom Moody, Richard Pybus, Phil Simmons and Lalchand Rajput. Those who had not made the cut to the interview round, included a set of former cricketers, ex-coaches and an engineer with no cricketing experience such as Dodda Ganesh, Lance Klusener, Rakesh Sharma and Upendranath Bramhachari. The Board had received ten applications for the position, a significant dip from the 56 candidates that applied for the job last year. In a surprise move, the BCCI had in June declined to renew former Indian captain Anil Kumble's contract as it neared its end, in spite of a commendable performance. In fact, it went on to invite applications for the top job just before the Champions Trophy. This had first sparked speculations about a possible spat between Kumble and skipper Virat Kohli. Soon after India’s loss to Pakistan in the finals of the tournament, the spinner announced his resignation in a letter to the BCCI. Reports of tiff were confirmed after Kumble called his partnership with Kohli "untenable".
