Nearly three weeks after John Wright relinquished his post, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced that it will appoint a committee in a couple of days to select a new coach for the Indian cricket team.
"We will constitute a committee in the next 48 hours which will decide on the next coach for the Indian team," BCCI president Ranbir Singh Mahendra told reporters in Delhi on Thursday.
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Mahendra said the committee will shortlist the candidates and recommend the name of the coach. A final decision will be taken by the BCCI's Working Committee, which is likely to meet later this month.
Wright, who coached the team for over four years, relinquished the job immediately after the series against Pakistan.
Mahendra said the committee will be entrusted the task of carrying out the entire procedure for appointing a new coach but did not specify how many members it would have.
"You will come to know once the committee is formed," he added.
Asked whether the next coach will be an Indian or a foreigner, he replied: "It's a decision that will be taken by the committee."
On whether the BCCI is contemplating re-appealing against the six-match ban on captain Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra said, "We will follow the rules. Whatever we can do within the rules, we will do.
"I feel that the six-match ban is a little too harsh. My advise to Ganguly is to take it with courage. He is an experienced player."
Ganguly was slapped a six-match ban by ICC Match Referee Chris Broad for India's slow over-rate after the fourth One-Day International against Pakistan in Ahmedabad. He was fined 70 per cent of his match fee for the same offence in the third one-dayer in Jamshedpur.
On the proposal of the Indian Olympic Association to include cricket in the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi, Mahendra said, "We have received the request from the IOA and we will consider it. I will take up the matter in the Board's Working Committee. It is the Working Committee which will take a final decision.
"Personally, I do not see any harm in including cricket in the Commonwealth Games," he added.
