WV Raman pips Kirsten, Prasad for India women's coaching job

WV Raman is new India womens team coach — WV Raman is new India women's team coach

Bengaluru, December 20: Former India opener WV Raman has been appointed the India women's cricket team coach, and as per reports he has pipped big names like Gary Kirsten and Venkatesh Prasad.

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The three-member ad-hoc panel on Thursday (December 20) submitted to BCCI the names of Gary Kirsten, Venkatesh Prasad and WV Raman for the post of women's national team coach after Ramesh Powar's tenure ended following the ICC Women's World Cup. However, Kirsten failed to get the job because he was not willing to step down from his role at IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The ad-hoc committee included former Indian skipper Kapil Dev, former batsman Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy. After Manoj Prabhakar was selected was one of the persons to be interviewed, there were speculations that Kapil would not be part of the interview process because the former had accused him of match-fixing in early 2000s. But Kapil attended the session and quizzed Prabhakar.

1. Gary Kirsten

Kirsten is a former India senior men's team coach who masterminded the title run of MS Dhoni and his band in 2011. However, the former South African opener is now associated with IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore and as per the BCCI sources he is not willing to stand down from the RCB role and that makes it hard for him to get the job. Apart from that, the women's team is scheduled to play against England in May and it clashes with the IPL.

2. WV Raman

The former India opener is a much respected coach and has been associated with India U-19 and Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. Raman also in a position of advantage because the team members have expressed the desire to have a batsman as coach.

3. Venkatesh Prasad

The former pacer was India's bowling coach for nearly two years and managed the side after the exit of Greg Chappell before Kirsten took over as the full-time coach. Prasad was also the bowling coach of Kings XI Punjab till IPL 2018 before Ryan Harris was appointed.

4. Interview process

The committee had received a total of 28 applications, which were later pruned to 11 and 9 people were interviewed this day at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. Raman, Prabhakar and Powar attended the interview in person while Kalpana Venkatachar was interviewed over phone. Other candidates like Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Venkatesh Prasad were given interview through Skype. A final decision is expected to be arrived in the next couple of days.