A total of 20 candidates including former India spinners Sunil Joshi and Ramesh Powar have applied for the vacant post of the Indian women's cricket coach. All the candidates are scheduled to be interviewed in Mumbai tomorrow.
Apart from the Joshi and Powar, former India wicket-keepers Ajay Ratra and Vijay Yadav, former women's captain Mamatha Maben and Suman Sharma, who earlier served as the assistant coach when Purnima Rau was in charge.
Maria Fahey, who played two Tests and 51 ODIs for New Zealand, has also applied for the job. The 34-year-old is currently a coach at the ACA Academy in Guntur.
Joshi and Powar can be considered strong contenders. Powar, who played two Tests and 31 ODIs, is already serving as the interim coach after the controversial exit of Tushar Arothe.
Joshi's experience as player and coach will also be hard to ignore. The left-arm spinner who represented India in 15 Tests and 69 ODIs, has had coaching stints with Oman and most recently Bangladesh. The veteran of 160 first-class games has also coached Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Hyderabad.
COA member Diana Edulji, BCCI cricket operations GM Saba Karim and acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary will be conducting the interviews.
The BCCI had invited applications for the coach's role after Arothe's bitter exit. He and senior players of the team developed serious differences 12 months after he took the team to the World Cup final.