Reports: Ravi Shastri To Be Next India Coach, To Pocket Rs 7 Crore
The 53-year-old has not only been handed a bump in designation but also in his pay package.
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Turns out Ravi Shastri’s claims of “I may be here longer than you think” before the team’s departure to Bangladesh, wasn’t really an empty caveat.
Currently serving the Indian squad as their interim ‘Team Director’, the former skipper is expected to be named the next Indian coach, according to media reports on Thursday.
The BCCI had been on the lookout for a new man at the helm after Duncan Fletcher’s contract expired at the end of the World Cup. And while Sourav Ganguly and even Rahul Dravid were pipped for the top job, the board is reported to have zeroed-in on Shastri, based on Test skipper Virat Kohli’s high recommendation (Watch the video that follows for some Virat praising Shastri).
As long as Ravi Shastri wants to continue in the job, I think it will be beneficial for the team in every way. He has really given a lot of confidence to all the young players in the team and you need someone who has been there done that. You need someone who has played cricket on his own terms.
— Virat Kohli, Indian Test Captain
The BCCI is expected to make the official announcement after the Bangladesh series. Apart from the bump in his designation, Shastri will also get a salary hike as the head coach of India. From the earlier Rs 6 crores a year as the Team Director, the 53-year-old will now take home a whopping Rs 7 crores per annum.
The pay package will make him the highest paid cricket coach in the world, but that’s not the only record his appointment breaks. Well, sort of.
Shastri’s reign — that’s expected to start with the tour of Zimbabwe in July — will witness an Indian as the coach of the team for the first time in 15 years, since the time John Wright was handed the job in 2000.
Shastri played 80 Tests and 150 ODIs for India and while he made a name for himself in his retired days as a commentator, he has been a favourite among the Indian team for the choice of a coach ever since Fletcher’s tenure ended.
While Virat Kohli has used up ever opportunity he got in the last week to suggest that Shastri should be allowed to stay with the team for “as long as he wants”, there have been other instances in the past as well when players have spoken out and credited Shastri for their return to form.
Shikhar Dhawan, who ended the 2015 World Cup as India’s leading run-scorer, is also believed to have found form after Shastri sat him down and broke down him game for him. Read about it here.
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