Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman are cricketing legends, but haven't coached teams, says Sandeep Patil

PTI

New Delhi: Former Indian cricketer and chief selector Sandeep Patil, on Thursday, came forth to criticise the entire selection process of India's new head coach.

Putting an end to the much-awaited curiosity of who could be named as Anil Kumble's replacement as India's head coach, BCCI's Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) announced Ravi Shastri's name on Tuesday.

CAC comprising Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman was said to interview six of the ten applicants who had applied for the job. However, just Shastri, Virender Sehwag, Lalchand Rajput, Tom Moody and Richard Pybus had showed up for the selection process while the sixth one, Phil Simmons was unavailable. Finally, on Tuesday evening, Shastri was announced as the coach with Zaheer Khan and Rahul Dravid as bowling and batting consultants, respectively.

However, former India head coach Sandeep Patil seemed absolutely unhappy with the entire process questioned the CAC in an interview to Mid Day. "I wouldn’t even call it warped. I’d say it’s all wrong. Sachin, Sourav and Laxman are absolute legends as players and have done great things for the country, but none of them have coached a team. Do coaches pick umpires and vice-versa?" he asked.

The 60-year-old even criticised CAC's decision to withhold the result on Monday citing reasons that they are presently not in a hurry and that they would like to speak to the indian skipper Virat Kohli before announcing the news.

"It’s like passing the buck, and a bit like saying, ‘Look we have identified the next coach and now it’s up to you’. Is this all done to play safe because of the Lodha Panel recommendations?" asked Patil once again.

Patil, however, backed Ravi Shastri for the job saying that the role of Team Director is more suited for the former Indian all-rounder.

"I have known Ravi for a very long time. He was my room partner during my playing days, he was chairman of the National Cricket Academy when I was NCA Director and he was Team Director when I was India's chief selector, but he’s not exactly a coach,” narrated Patil. "I remember Gautam Gambhir saying last year, ‘Ask Ravi Shastri how many throw-downs he did in the last 18 months.’ The Team Director post would have suited Ravi better."