Melbourne/Mumbai: Greg Chappell is in line for taking over as Australian coach after next year's World Cup, according to Australian media reports which caused a surprise to cricket administrators in India.
Chappell, who was appointed India's coach in May 2005, is contracted with the BCCI till the end of the World Cup. The question of whether the contract would be extended will be decided later.
That Chappell was a strong candidate to take over from current Australian coach John Buchanan was revealed by Cricket Australia Director and former captain Allan Border.
"John (Buchanan) has decided that after the World Cup he is going to be moving on. Therefore we need an Australian coach. It's a tough job," Border said.
"Tom Moody, Tim Nielsen, Greg Chappell are in the mix, Dav Whatmore is now coaching Bangladesh and he was a long-term coach at Sri Lanka as well. We've got a lot of good candidates for a tough job," he was quoted as saying by The Daily
Telegraph on Saturday.
The newspaper report also said that Chappell's contract "will not be renewed by mutual agreement with the BCCI".
The BCCI, however, dismissed the report as "incorrect" and said it would take a decision of renewing Chappell's contract after the World Cup.
"That is incorrect. There has been no such mutual agreement. We will decide over the issue (whether to continue with Chappell as coach) after the World Cup. He's been contracted to be the Indian coach till the end of the tournament," BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah said on Saturday.
Chappell, currently in Colombo for a cricket series against Sri Lanka, has said he had neither been approached by Cricket Australia for the job nor has he been told by the BCCI that his contract would not be extended.
"I haven't really followed the story. If Allan Border did say that, then I assume that they might be in the process of identifying candidates to succeed Buchanan," Chappell said.
"If the media want to pick up a quote and run with it, then that's their prerogative," he said.
Comments
0 comment