Team India coach: First round of interviews over, Phil Simmons withdraws

The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which is led by former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, was on Friday through with the opening round of interviews for the post of the head coach of the Indian men's cricket team with former West Indies cricketer Phil Simmons backing out of the same citing personal reasons. 

Simmons was one of the six candidates shortlisted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the high-profile post. The remaining five were incumbent Ravi Shastri, former Indian cricketers Lalchand Rajput and Robin Singh, former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson, former Australian all-rounder Tom Moody.

Former Afghanistan coach Simmons was scheduled to give interview along with current India coach Ravi Shastri via Skype, but he decided to backout ahead of the same. 

Robin Singh, who represented India in just one Test and 136 ODI between 1989 and 2001 besides coaching Team Mumbai in the IPL since joining the franchise in 2010, was the first to appear before the CAC for the interview at the BCCI headquarter in Mumbai. 

The former Indian cricketer was then followed by Lalchand, Hesson and Moody. The entire process of presentation and interview of the first four candidates continued late in the afternoon.

Notably, the BCCI had invited application for the role of Team India's head coach after the contracts of incumbent coach Shastri and his support staff ended following the World Cup in July.

Shastri, who served as the team director of Team India till 2016 when India lost in the World T20 semi-finals, was appointed as the head coach of the national side in 2017 following Anil Kumble's departure. He was then given a 45-day extension following the 2019 ICC World Cup keeping in mind the ongoing West Indies tour.