By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
IANS
Chittagong : The Indian cricket team's new coach will be appointed by June 10, a top board official said here Saturday.
"A final decision will be taken when the (special) committee meets on June 4 in Bangalore," Niranjan Shah, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said after arriving here along with board president Sharad Pawar in the morning.
He said that the coach would be appointed latest by June 10, as the team is to leave for the tour of Ireland and England June 20.
Outgoing Bangladesh coach Dave Whatmore has expressed his desire to take over the reins of the Indian team, replacing Greg Chappell, who left after his contract expired last month.
Pawar, Shah and two other BCCI officials – vice-president Rajiv Shukla and chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty – are here and they are expected to have talks with Whatmore before they leave for India Sunday.
Shah said a short camp would also be held for the team ahead of the Ireland and England tour, most probably in Bangalore, as there is a need for the new coach to get to know the players and vice versa.
"That is the reason we plan to complete everything by June 10 and then have a camp for five days before the team goes off to England," he said.
Although the BCCI officials' visit is being officially described as a "private" one, they are expected to hold talks with Whatmore, a Sri Lanka-born former Australian Test player, whose four-year term ends with the ongoing two-match Test series against India.
"If somebody wants to meet us we will be happy to meet him. But it's not the time to talk about this. A final decision will be taken once the Test series finishes," Shah said.
The Indian team's cricket manager Ravi Shastri, also in the Pawar-headed seven-member committee formed last month to select the new coach, has already spoken to Whatmore here.
The other members of the committee are Shah, BCCI treasurer N. Srinivasan, joint secretary M.P. Pandove and former captains Sunil Gavaskar and S. Venkataraghavan.
Asked if he or Pawar would speak to the team on the much delayed players' contract issue, Shah said: "That will only be discussed after the tour is over. No such discussion is conducive in the middle of the tour."
Pawar, who did not speak to Indian mediapersons here, is accompanied by his wife Pratibha and his friend-cum-doctor Ravi Bapat.