As the deadline to apply for Indian cricket team’s head coach position enters the last week, numerous names have been doing rounds as front-runners for the position. One name which has remained low-key is that of former Sri Lanka captain and Mumbai Indians’ Director of Cricket Mahela Jayawardene.
Jayawardene has no dearth of coaching experience and won an IPL title during his first season with MI in 2017. He went on to win two more titles in 2019 and 2020, and forged a successful partnership with captain Rohit Sharma. In addition to his IPL success, Jayawardene has served as a consultant to the Sri Lankan cricket team during ICC events and is known to be a quality man-manager.
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This is not the first time that Jayawardene’s name is doing the rounds in Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) corridors for the head coach’s job. Even when Rahul Dravid took over from Ravi Shastri, Jayawardene was top of the cricket board’s wishlist. If the 46-year-old wishes to apply for the position, it will be very hard for the BCCI to look the other way.
Not just Jayawardene but if former India cricketer and current Kolkata Knight Riders’ mentor Gautam Gambhir decides to throw his hat in the ring, the men who matter will have some thinking to do. Gambhir has enjoyed a lot of success with IPL teams but heading the Indian cricket team is not a two-month assignment and would require him to be on the road for 9-10 months, and let go of his lucrative commentary stints.
More than the financials, the nearly year-long commitment is what Gambhir would be thinking about before submitting his application and it will be interesting to see how the conversation with Kolkata Knight Riders pans out if he wishes to apply for India coach’s job. Gambhir moved ship from Lucknow Super Giants to KKR before the start of 2024 edition and made instant impact as the side ended the group stage on top of the points table.
Gambhir, since his domestic days, has been a very pro-player captain/leader but heading an Indian dressing room filled with superstars, some who he hasn’t had good relations with in the past, is going to be a different beast. The 42-year-old is not going to be your politically correct candidate who would just hold a press conference and he will continue to say what he sees.
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Apart from Jayawardene and Gambhir, names of Stephen Fleming, Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer are also doing rounds for the coach’s job. Fleming has a long association with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and those close to developments feel he is too yellow to even think about jumping ship.
Additionally, he handles the franchise’s other teams in the Major League Cricket and also has an assignment with The Hundred. So will he trade the gigs in different parts of the world to be on the road with the Indian team for most of the year, for the most thankless job? Looks extremely unlikely at this stage.
This is not the first time a foreign coach’s name is doing the rounds as BCCI have had discussions with former South Africa captain Graeme Smith in the past but it didn’t materialise. It is understood that lack of enough quality in Indian candidates is prompting so many discussions with overseas coaches, especially the ones who have seen the ecosystem closely during the IPL.
VVS Laxman was long considered the ideal replacement for Rahul Dravid but with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) head now putting in a lot of work in the new facility, he is very unlikely to feature in discussions. Laxman had filled in as the coach during Dravid’s tenure when the latter took breaks but is likely to continue as the NCA head in Bengaluru. The new NCA is set to be inaugurated this year and Laxman is putting together a robust system in place for targeted players, age-group players and especially emerging all-rounders.
The last date to apply for the position is May 27 and at this stage, Jayawardene, if he wishes to apply, will be a temptation too hard to resist.
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