UPDATE: Former Australian pacer Jason Gillespie, who had been linked with the India coach job earlier in the day, has denied applying for the prestigious post. The Yorkshire coach took to Twitter to make it clear, as he said, "I have not applied.", after reports in a couple of Indian newspapers suggested he had put his name in the hat as well.
He further tweeted, wishing BCCI all the best for getting the right candidate. "I have no plans to apply. I wish @BCCI all the best in securing the right candidate for the job."
"It would be a brilliant job however I'm not able to commit to the amount of travel involved at this point in time," tweeted Gillespie.
Original Story: The high-profile post of India cricket coach is vacant at the moment with the BCCI receiving applications from several big names. After former India cricketers such as Ravi Shastri and Sandeep Patil filed their nominations for the post, former Australian players Stuart Law and Jason Gillespie are said to have shown an interest for the coach's position, reported The Hindu.
After Fletcher's tenure came to an end at the conclusion of the 2015 ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, India did not rope in a permanent coach. The then team director Shastri continued his role, and looked after the affairs of the team.
But Shastri's contract also came to an end after the World T20 in March, so the BCCI are now looking for a full-time coach, with Shastri one of the leading candidates, who has the backing of senior players including Test captain Virat Kohli. However, it remains to be seen if the BCCI will go ahead with an Indian as the last four permanent coaches of India were all foreigners.
BCCI's interest of hiring foreign coaches might have been one of the main reasons why Law and Gillespie have applied for the role, besides the lucrative and challenging task appealing the duo.
Pakistan also wanted to rope in Law as the coach of their national team, but the Australian decided against taking up the job. Law has good experience of coaching in the sub-continent as he has coached Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the past. To make matters interesting, Law had hinted at taking over the India coaching role last year, if a chance came by.
Another Australian, Gillespie, who was linked with the England job in 2015, already has his sights on making India a superpower in international cricket. The former pacer, who is the present coach of the English county side Yorkshire, sent a detailed plan to the BCCI.
"Gillespie has sent a detailed list of what he wants to do. He has had great success in recent times. In many ways, he is a modern-day coach capable of handling all three formats of the game. We are actually surprised that not many foreigners have applied. With a couple of days to go, one or two more names might come in," The New Indian Express quoted an insider as saying.
Besides the aforementioned names, former Indian cricketers like Lalchand Rajput, Venkatesh Prasad, Robin Singh and Balwinder Singh Sandhu have also applied for the post. However, as of now, former India captain Rahul Dravid, who was also said to be one of the favourites for the post, has not filed his nomination.
