Sports / CAC did not consult Virat Kohli before reappointing Ravi Shastri, says Kapil Dev

Cricket Advisory Committee head Kapil Dev said on Friday that the 3-member panel appointed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to select the new head of India cricket team did not consult Virat Kohli before beginning the process. The CAC reappointed Ravi Shastri as the head coach of Kohli-led senior men's cricket team.

Six candidates were shortlisted and 5 of them, including Ravi Shastri, gave interviews at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai on Friday. Shastri had attended the interview from West Indies where Team India are set to begin their World Test Championships campaign.

Ravi Shastri's contract expired after India's World Cup campaign but the BCCI handed him and his support staff 45-member extension. Shastri was haned an automatic entry into the selection process while the likes of Mike Hesson, Tom Moody, Robin Singh, Lalchand Rajput and Phil Simmons were shortlisted for interviews.

Ravi Shastri revealed how he will improve Team India: Kapil

"The opinion of the captain wasn't taken. Otherwise we would have had to take the opinions of the entire Indian team. We didn't consult Virat Kohli, else we would have asked the entire team. We did not ask anyone," Kapil Dev told the press in Mumbai after the interviews.

"Number three was Tom Moody, number two was Mike Hesson. Number one is Ravi Shastri as all of you were expecting... It was a very close race," Kapil added.

"Ravi Shastri, in his presentation revealed what he did in the last two years, what help he needs in making the team better and how he will improve in the subsequent period."

Notably, Kapil Dev had said that the captain has the right to express his opinion. His comment came after Virat Kohli said before India's departure to the West Indies that the team would be happy if Ravi Shastri continued as the head coach.

CAC member Anshuman Gaekwad, who said Ravi Shastri's familiarity with the system worked in his favour, had said Kohli's comments on Shastri won't influence the Cricket Advisory Committee.

"The captain can say anything. It doesn't bother us. We are a committee. That's his opinion and the BCCI takes a note of it, not us," Anshuman Gaekwad had told news agency IANS ahead of the selection process.