bcci
Reuters

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has clarified on Tuesday evening that Ravi Shastri is yet not the coach of the India cricket team. Just less than an hour prior, reports were widespread that Shastri was appointed the India coach until ICC World Cup 2019.

The media organisations too jumped on the gun early on and now everybody seems to have been trolled.

"No final decision as yet. The coach has still not been finalised as the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) are still deliberating," said BCCI Acting-Secretary Amitabh Choudhary during the press conference on Tuesday.

The entire media was abuzz with reports that Shastri, who has formerly been the India cricket team director, was appointed as the replacement of Anil Kumble.

A veteran of 80 Tests and 150 ODIs, the 55-year-old Shastri served as the Team Director for India's tour of England in 2014 to the 2016 World T20, where India lost to the eventual champions West Indies.

Shastri was overlooked last year and the CAC picked celebrated spinner and former skipper Anil Kumble for a one-year term. That term unfortunately ended on a controversial note after the last month's ICC Champions Trophy in England.

Shastri had initially not applied for the coach's post but when the BCCI extended the deadline for accepting applications till July 9, he jumped into the fray.

Besides Shastri, the CAC on Monday interviewed four other candidates -- explosive India opener Virender Sehwag, Sri Lanka's former Australian coach Tom Moody, Pakistan's former coach Richard Pybus from England, and India's former manager Lalchand Rajput. Former West Indies coach Phil Simmons wasn't available for the interview process.

The CAC wanted to postpone the announcement of the new coach's appointment as they wanted to consult India skipper Virat Kohli on the issue, but the Committee of Administrators later directed them to speed up the process and finalise the issue by Tuesday.

(with IANS inputs)