Once bitten ever shy seems to be the policy of the Board of Control for Cricket in India vis-a-vis its selection of the national coach in the aftermath of the disastrous Graham Ford episode a few months ago.
"We have been receiving applications from candidates and the deadline is September 15 after which they will be scrutinised, a short resume of each candidate prepared and sent to the members of the special committee formed to select the coach," BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said on Tuesday.
"We will then convene a meeting of the committee. All these are subject to us getting applications from the right candidates," the BCCI official said.
"Hopefully the process [of coach selection] will get over before the start of the seven-match ODI series against Australia," Shah added.
The BCCI had issued a media statement on August 27 detailing the requirements for the new India coach, a post that has been lying vacant since the departure of Greg Chappell in the aftermath of the World Cup fiasco.
The Board's endeavour to appoint a successor to the former Aussie captain ended in a disaster when South African Ford came to Chennai to meet the members of the BCCI's coach appointment committee in June.
Ford, coach of English county Kent, seemingly accepted the offer, but then did an about turn once he returned to England that left BCCI, which had already announced him as its new coach, totally embarrassed.
The Board had to fall back on India's former Test captain Chandu Borde to be the cricket manager as a stop-gap arrangement on the ongoing tour of England.
Borde is to be replaced by another former Test batsman Lalchand Rajput for the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa later this month.
The BCCI wants the new coach to possess Level III coaching credentials, be media and computer savvy, and also have the ability to motivate the players and optimize their performance at all times.
The BCCI wants the candidate to have played at least at first class level and have prior experience of coaching an international or national team or should have been a coach at an elite coaching centre of international repute.
It also wants the applicant to be capable of building positive relations with the public and the media.
BCCI has listed that the coach needs to work closely with the selection committee and interact periodically with the Review Committee to be set up by it as among its other requirements.
The Board also wants the aspiring candidate to possess excellent communication skills to deal at different levels like players, team management, selectors and the BCCI.
