BCCI may talk to Whatmore in B'desh
Top officials will visit Chittagong to talk to the outgoing Bangladesh coach, urging him to take over the Indian team's reins.
Six top officials of the Indian cricket board, led by its president Sharad Pawar, are arriving in Chittagong on Saturday, possibly to talk to Bangladesh's outgoing coach Dave Whatmore with an offer to take over the Indian team's reins.
A top Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) official said in Chittagong that he received a fax from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) about it on Wednesday.
"I have received a fax from the BCCI saying that their six officials are coming to Chittagong on Saturday on a day's visit," Sirajuddin Mohammed Alamgir, a BCB executive committee member, said.
"The fax does not mention the names of all six members, only that the team would be headed by Pawar. But I am told that BCCI Secretary Niranjan Shah, Vice-President Lalit Modi and former BCCI president IS Bindra are also coming, all in a private helicopter from Mumbai," said Alamgir, who is Vice-Chairman of the BCB's grounds and facilities committee.
He said the BCCI officials' itinerary was not mentioned in the fax.
The other members could be from among BCCI treasurer N Srinivasan, joint-secretary MP Pandove, Sunil Gavaskar, S Venkatraghavan, who are members of the committee formed to pick replacement of Chappell, who left after the completion of his two-year tenure last month.
The other member of committee, Ravi Shastri, is already in Chittagong as the team's cricket manager.
Whatmore, a Sri Lankan-born former Australian Test player, will soon be leaving Bangladesh at the end of his four-year tenure. His last assignment is the two-match Test series against India starting in Chittagong on Friday. The second five-day Test will start from May 25 in Dhaka.
Whatmore has also been linked to the Pakistan Cricket Board, which is without a coach after Bob Woolmer's death during the World Cup in the West Indies.