Team India’s 2011 World Cup winning coach Gary Kirsten, former India opener WV Raman and fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad were amongst the shortlisted candidates for the post of the women’s team coach on Thursday.

An ad-hoc selection committee consisting of Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad, and Shantha Rangaswamy have recommended the shortlisted names to BCCI, as per PTI reports.

However, with Gary Kirsten not ready to give up his role as head coach of IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore, it remains uncertain if Kirsten will be selected. As per reports, all efforts are being made to convince Kirsten to leave the RCB job.

The other shortlisted candidates out of the 28 applicants who were interviewed are Manoj Prabhakar, Trent Johnston, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Brad Hogg, and Kalpana Venkatachar.

As per sources, three were interviewed in person, five candidates, including Kirsten, on Skype and one over the phone.

The BCCI is in a hunt of a head coach of Indian women’s coach after Ramesh Powar’s brief stint as interim coach ended last month, in rather controversial circumstances. Powar too appeared for the interview.

There is even a divide of opinions between the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) members Vinod Rai and former India captain Diana Edulji. Edulji prefers Ramesh Powar continues till the New Zealand tour starting next month; while Rai asked the BCCI officials to invite fresh applications.

Powar’s controversial interim tenure ended on November 30 after a bitter fallout with ODI captain and senior player Mithali Raj over selection issues. He applied after receiving support from T20I captain and vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana.   

(with PTI inputs)