Ravi Shastri, Sandeep Patil among 57 applicants for post of India coach​: BCCI

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday revealed that as many as 57 applicants for the chief coach's position. The Indian board did not divulged the names, but it's already known that former Team Director Ravi Shastri and current chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil are among them.

"At the close of the June 10, 2016, the timeline set for receiving applications for the position of the Head Coach of the Indian Cricket Team, BCCI has received a total of 57 applications from coaches within India and overseas," a BCCI release stated.

Apart from Shastri and Patil, some of the other former India players who have applied for the top job are Venkatesh Prasad, Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Hrishikesh Kanitkar.

"The primary scrutiny of the applications received is now being carried out by the Office of the Honorary Secretary of the BCCI, with regards to the applicants, meeting the set eligibility criteria. After this initial scrutiny, the list of candidates who meet the criteria will be processed for further consideration," the release continued.

Last month, the BCCI invited applications for the Team India head coach, a position which has been lying vacant since Duncan Fletcher’s contract ended after the World Cup in 2015. The role of coach was however appropriated with that of Team Director for a while, during which Shastri worked as the mentor/coach of the team.

As a stopgap arrangement, Sanjay Bangar has been handed coach's role for the entirety of Indian team's Zimbabwe tour.

The BCCI have set the criteria for this job, and they are looking for someone who has “successfully coached a cricket team of any of the member countries of the ICC, at the first class or at the International level”.

Further, BCCI want the prospective coach to have “communication skills befitting the coach of an International team are mandatory, along with the ability to effectively convey the right messages and must demonstrate proficiency in English. It is desirable to communicate in Hindi and other regional Indian languages.”

Another criteria is "It is preferred that the candidate should be qualified through a certification assessment program conducted by any of the full member countries and currently possess such a valid certification”.