Raman, Powar, Kanitkar, Ratra interviewed for India women’s head coach job

A total of eight candidates have been shortlisted for the role. The CAC conducted the interviews of four candidates on Wednesday, while the remaining will be done on Thursday.

The Cricket Advisory Committee interviewed W.V. Raman on Wednesday.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s Cricket Advisory Committee interviewed four candidates - W.V. Raman, Ramesh Powar, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Ajay Ratra - for the India women's team head coach job on Wednesday.

Sportstar  understands that a total of eight candidates have been shortlisted for the role. While the male candidates were interviewed on Wednesday, the remaining four female candidates - Suman Sharma, Mamatha Maben, Hemlata Kala and Devika Palshikar - will be interviewed on Thursday after which the coach will be announced.

The interviews were conducted by Madan Lal and Sulakshana Naik, while the third member of the panel, RP Singh, could not be part of the process due to his father's demise.

READ: Raman reapplies for India women's head coach job; Arothe, Bhave in the fray too

While 35 candidates - including some of the seasoned coaches - had applied for the job, the CAC shortlisted four male and four female candidates respectively, and it has emerged that Raman - who was the head coach until recently - could be a front runner for the job.

Taking over as the head coach in 2019, Raman has enjoyed success with the Indian team as the side reached the final of the T20 World Cup last year, before going down to Australia. Coming with a vast experience of coaching various state teams and IPL sides, Raman has an impressive resume, and many in the fraternity believe that he should be given a longer rope.

In 2018, after Tushar Arothe quit, the Board had named Ramesh Powar as the coach. However after the 2018 T20 World Cup, Powar was replaced by Raman. Ratra and Kanitkar, too, are NCA affiliated coaches and have had stints with the India A, India U-19 and IPL teams.

In April, the BCCI had invited applications for the head coach’s role after Raman’s contract expired last October. The former India cricketer, however, was asked to continue till the recently concluded home series against South Africa.

In the advertisement, the BCCI categorically stated that the head coach will have to work with the women’s national team, Women’s India A and Women’s India U-19 teams.

India will travel to England on June 2 for an one-off Test and three T20Is and ODIs. And, ahead of the tour, the selection committee - headed by Neetu David - will pick the support staff for the women’s team.