Ravi Shastri to continue as India's head coach

Former India cricketer Ravi Shastri has been appointed as the coach of the Indian cricket team for second successive term. Three-member Cricket Advisory Committee- Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad and Shantha Rangaswamy- made the announcement on Friday.

Shastri's new tenure has been extended till T20 World Cup, to be held in 20121 in Australia.

The interview of all the shortlisted candidates took place at the BCCI headquarters here for the appointment of the coach.

"After the meeting of four-six hours, all three of us had our own marking. We all unanimously decided after doing all the accounts and numbers which took a little bit of time. Number three is Tom Moody, number two is Mike (Hesson) from New Zealand very intelligent and very good. And number one is Ravi Shastri which you all were expecting," Kapil Dev told reporters.

There were five parameters on which all the candidates were marked. The parameters were: Coaching philosophy, Experience of coaching, Achievements in coaching, Communication, and Knowledge of modern coaching tools.

Anshuman Gaekwad said that Shastri is 'well-versed' with the entire system.

"Being the current coach, knowing the boys well, knowing the problems well in the team and what needs to be done. I think he is well-versed with the entire system while the others were not. They probably had to start," Gaekwad said.

Dev also added that they did not consult anyone when asked whether India captain Virat Kohli played any role in the selection.

On August 12, BCCI had shortlisted six candidates for the men's team's head coach. The six candidates for the position were: Robin Singh, Lalchand Rajput, Mike Hesson, Tom Moody, Phil Simmons, and Ravi Shastri.