Year 2007: India play on despite the turmoil

The chaotic world of Indian cricket hit a new low in 2007 with reluctant captains, invisible coaches, warring officials and rebel games hogging the spotlight.
The real test start over the next two months when India take on world champions Australia in four Test matches Down Under followed by a tri-series also featuring Sri Lanka.

"Australia is the benchmark every team sets for itself," former Test batsman and television commentator Sanjay Manjrekar told AFP. "But some good individual performances gives me hope we will do well." Sourav Ganguly, 35, sacked as captain and player by the then coach Greg Chappell, ended the debate over the future of ageing stars by hammering 1,023 runs from nine Tests with three centuries.
Sachin Tendulkar, 34, the world's leading century-maker with 37 Test and 41 one-day hundreds, was dismissed in the 90s seven times this year but remained in top form with 699 Test and 1,425 one-day runs.

Rahul Dravid, 34, had a lean year by his lofty standards - 585 runs in nine Tests - and was dropped from the one-day team, but remains India's most dependable batsman overseas. The younger Yuvraj Singh, 26, inspired India's Twenty20 triumph with six sixes in one over from England's Stuart Broad and marked his overdue return to Test cricket with a century against Pakistan in Bangalore.

Gary Kirsten will offically take over as the Indian Cricket Coach only from March 1.

BCCI zeroes in on Gary Kirsten for coach

Gary Kirsten, the former South African opener, is the surprise front-runner to be India's next coach. While the Indian board said Kirsten was interviewed by the coach selection committee on Monday and a formal announcement on the new coach would be made in a week's time, senior officials were saying off the record that the appointment was a formality."It has been finalised," a senior board official told Cricinfo. "We just need some time to complete the formalities."


Kirsten was interviewed in Delhi by the coach selection committee, comprising former captains Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and S Venkataraghavan, BCCI joint secretary MP Pandove, treasurer N Srinivasan and secretary Niranjan Shah. Anil Kumble, India's test captain, was also present at the meeting. The committee had decided to expedite the process with the intention of appointing a coach before the tour of Australia next month.


Among those who have applied to succeed Chappell are Chandrakant Pandit, the former Indian wicketkeeper and Maharashtra coach, Richard Done, former head of the Queensland Academy of Excellence, Leicestershire coach Tim Boon, Kepler Wessels, the former Australia and South Africa international, Terry Oliver, Queensland's coach, Dave Nosworthy, coach of Canterbury, and former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe. Unlike the media frenzy that surrounded the applications of Graham Ford and John Emburey earlier this year, Kirsten's interview was kept very low profile.

After retirement in March 2004, Kirsten embarked on a coaching career, taking up an assignment as Cricket South Africa's high performance manager, after which he set up the privately-run Gary Kirsten Cricket Academy.

Statistics:

Kirsten, 40, was one of South Africa's leading batsmen, playing 101 Tests scoring 7289 runs at 45.27 and playing 185 ODIs scoring 6798 runs at 40.95.