India women's team head coach: Powar, Kirsten, Gibbs among 10 shortlisted candidates

The next step in the hunt for India's new women's cricket coach will be taken here Thursday when short-listed candidates, including Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs and incumbent Ramesh Powar, appear for interviews before the BCCI selection panel.

Incumbent Ramesh Powar’s hopes of getting his job back gained firm footing after he was one of the shortlisted candidates along with other high-profile names like Gary Kirsten and Herschelle Gibbs for the position of India women’s team head coach.

The 10 shortlisted candidates, winnowed down from a list of 28 applicants, will appear for a final interview before the BCCI selection panel comprising former India great Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy on Thursday.

The other shortlisted candidates apart from Powar, Gibbs and Kirsten are W V Raman, Venkatesh Prasad, Manoj Prabhakar, Trent Johnston, Mark Coles, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Brad Hogg.

Some big names like former Sri Lanka head coach Dev Whatmore, former England batsman Owais Shah, former Australian all-rounder Domenic Thornley missed out.

It is learnt that most of the foreigners will give their presentation via Skype while locals like Powar will appear in person.

"The ad-hoc panel comprises former players of high repute. I have no doubt that the committee will pick the best one," a BCCI official told PTI.     

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA), comprising chairman Vinod Rai and former India captain Diana Edulji, have been divided over the coach selection process.

While Edulji wanted Powar to continue at least till the New Zealand tour starting next month, Rai instructed the BCCI top brass to invite fresh applications.

Powar's controversial interim tenure ended on November 30 after a bitter fallout with ODI captain and senior player Mithali Raj over selection issues.

The board is now going ahead with the interview process.   

Powar decided to apply after T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana came out in strong support of the former India spinner.

What might go against him is the sequence of events that lead to the interviews. Powar and Harmanpreet, along with other members of the team management, decided to drop Raj for the World T20 semifinal which the team lost to England by eight wickets.

After returning home from the West Indies, Raj accused Powar and Edulji of trying to destroy her and being biased against her.

Powar, on his part, accused Raj of threatening to retire midway into the World T20 after being denied the opening slot and creating chaos in the team.