MUMBAI, November 2: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chose to go with the players' choice selecting former New Zealand captain John Wright to replace Anshuman Gaekwad as the coach of the Indian team. The announcement was made by BCCI President AC Muthiah at a press conference at the Cricket Club of India here on Thursday.The mild-mannered 46-year-old Wright, whose temperament is said to match the Indian players following his impression on Rahul Dravid, who plays for English county Kent - who are also coached by Wright - and Indian captain Saurav Ganguly and star player Sachin Tendulkar. Wright scored over the other two contenders for the post - Australians Greg Chappell and Geoff Marsh - following his availibilty for the tight itenerary that India has in the coming year. Marsh had himself backed out, said Muthiah.Wright has been awarded a one-year term (which could be renewable) is scheduled to arrive in India on November 14. He will take over from Gaekwad after the one-off Test against Bangladesh at Dhaka starting from November 10.Muthiah said, ``Wright would be getting more or less the same as the Indian players plus the boarding and lodging when he is here,'' adding ``there will be no assistant coach under Wright.''When queried about the other two Australian contenders for the job, Muthiah said former Aussie opener Marsh could not spare the time the Board wanted while Chappell was hard pressed for time since he is already coaching the South Australian team and is also a National selector.Earlier in the day, former BCCI President Raj Singh Dungarpur, who was a member of the selection panel, had stated that ``Wright was the right man for the job as Marsh could not meet our conditions, while Chappell demanded an astronomical figure.'' Muthiah, however, did not mention about the financial demands of Chappell.According to Dungarpur, ``Marsh finds it difficult to leave his family for a long period of time while the Board insisted that he be with the team for most part of the year, which was not acceptable to him.'' Muthiah said that he was also impressed with Marsh and added that the board is considering his role in the development of Indian cricket but had not yet arrived at any definite decision. ``I am very impressed with Marsh's knowledge of the game and we are trying to get him involved with Indian cricket in some capacity,'' Muthiah said.When asked whether Wright was apprehensive about the job considering the uproar the CBI report on match-fixing has created in India, Muthiah said, ``We have been in touch about that and he knows about the report. In fact, all the three applicants were aware of the investigations and offered their services.''The left-handed Wright played 82 Tests for New Zealand, scoring 5,334 runs at an average of 37.82. The BCCI hunted for a foreign coach when former Indian great Kapil Dev quit midway through his two-year term after being investigated in connection with the current match-fixing scandal. Kapil, Test cricket's leading wicket-taker until West Indian Courtney Walsh overtook him in March, said he had lost interest in the game after being embroiled in the controversy.Muthiah, National Cricket Academy Chief coach Hanumant Singh and former Test captain and renowned international umpire Srinivas Venkatraghavan were the other members of the selection panel.
