Virender Sehwag opens up about Indian coaching snub

What's the story?

Former Indian batsman Virender Sehwag recently spoke about the application that he sent out for the job of the head coach of the Indian team before Ravi Shastri was selected for the post. The man from Delhi revealed that he did not apply for the post initially, but that the offer came to him from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

"I never thought of coaching the Indian cricket team. I was given an offer to coach the team. The BCCI (acting) secretary Amitabh Chaudhary and GM (Game Development) MV Sridhar came to me and requested me to think about the offer. I took my time and then applied for the position," said the right-handed opening batsman.

"I also had a word with Virat Kohli, he asked me to go for it. It was only then that I applied. If you ask for my opinion, I would say that I was never interested. I thought since they are requesting me, I should help them. I never thought of applying on my own nor will I ever apply in future," Sehwag added.

In case you didn't know..

Sehwag, along with Tom Moody, Lalchand Rajput, Dodda Ganesh, Ravi Shastri, Richard Pybus and Phil Simmons, had applied for the position of the head coach following Anil Kumble's resignation from the post.

At the end of it all, Shastri was chosen for the job after a long-drawn process, which lasted for more than a month.

The details

Sehwag says that Shastri told him that he would not apply

Sehwag also stated that had he known that Shastri was applying for the position, he never would have given his name in for the job in the first place.

Sehwag, along with five other candidates (including Kumble), had applied way before other options came in. However, Kumble's resignation turned things around. This was when BCCI extended the deadline for the incoming applications and Shastri's name came in.

Sehwag claims to have spoken with Shastri during the Champions Trophy earlier this year, that reveals that the latter said that he had no intentions of applying for the job. Sehwag said that if he knew Shastri was going to go ahead and tender his application in any way, he would not have tried for the position in the first place.

What's next?

The Indian team has bonded well with their new coach and the results are showing. The team under Kohli went on to whitewash Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka across all the formats in its tour to the island last month.

They are now awaiting Steve Smith's men for a limited-overs tussle on Indian soil.

Author's take

The coaching saga has been a controversial and highly speculative chapter of the recent history of Indian cricket. It took attention off the action on the field and created a negative atmosphere around every person who was directly or indirectly related to the process.

The team and its fans have finally put the episode behind them and are concentrating on cricket again. The ideal situation would be to not dig out fossils from the incident, as it may lead to negative repercussions yet again.