Reports: Ravi Shastri to be appointed India coach; set to become highest paid cricket coach in world

Ravi Shastri

Former India skipper and current Team Director Ravi Shastri is certain to be named the next coach, according to reports. The 53-year-old Shastri could also become the highest paid cricket coach in the world with a deal estimated to be worth Rs 7 crore-a-year.

The new appointment is expected to be announced prior to India's tour of Zimbabwe in July. He will be the first Indian to hold the job after 2000 when the appointment of John Wright of New Zealand started an era of foreign coaches for the India team.

The reports also said that BCCI stopped looking for a new coach after Test captain Virat Kohli told them he wanted Shastri in the dressing room.

Highest paid cricket coach

Shastri had made it abundantly clear that he would like to take up the full-time coaching job for the Indian team, and reports say that the “another round of discussion after the tour of Bangladesh” line of action was based on discussions on Shastri’s compensation package.

He was paid Rs 4 crore-a-year by the BCCI for his role as a TV commentator and had a Rs 6 crore-a-year contract as Team Director. Duncan Fletcher, who Shastri is taking over from, was paid Rs 4.2 crore a year.

Whether Shastri will have an annual contract or a fixed term would only be known before India leave for Zimbabwe in July.

Ravi Shastri is on Rs 7 crore per annum as the BCCI Mr Fix it. That equates to approx USD $1m

— Dennis Does Cricket (@DennisCricket_) June 11, 2015