The legendary Indian cricketers, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar is expected to feature in the panel which will finalize India’s new women’s cricket coach as there is a possibility that the BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) may not be able to conduct the process for various reasons. The position of women’s coach has been vacated after a bitter end to Ramesh Powar‘s interim tenure on November 30 and the deadline for potential candidates to file applications ends on December 15.

As per current scenario, the CAC will be conducting interviews for the job but the committee, comprising the legendary trio of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, and Sourav Ganguly, may not be part of the process owing to prior commitments. As the per quotes in PTI, one of their sources in BCCI said, “Sachin (Tendulkar), (VVS) Laxman and Sourav (Ganguly) will be asked first and once they give it in writing that they are interested, they will decide on a new coach.”

However, there are rumors that the CAC may refuse like it did during the choice of junior national selectors and a new panel could be formed. The CAC had opted out of the junior selectors’ selection process citing prior commitments. Tendulkar had also cited conflict of interest due to his son Arjun’s active career at the age-group level right now.

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Describing the same, one of the BCCI officials said, “The BCCI is looking at eminent names and right now we have around five names on our radar depending on their availability. Also, we have checked whether there’s any Conflict of Interest. Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Anshuman Gaekwad, Shubhangi Kulkarni, and Shantha Rangaswamy are some of the names that BCCI will approach and depending on their availability, will constitute a three-member panel.”

Of these, Gavaskar may not come on board due to his media commitments, but the official also suggested that Gavaskar has shown his passion towards the women’s team in his columns and so is Kapil, who has the best interest of Indian cricket in mind.

Powar’s coaching stint ended a week after India lost the semi-finals of the World T20 to England. The furor started after the team management dropped Mithali Raj from the knock-out fixture. Mithali alleged Powar and Committee of Administrators (CoA) member Diana Edulji that they attempted to destroy her and having a bias against her.

On the other hand, Powar was of the opinion that Mithali was the one who threatened to retire midway into the World T20 after being denied the opening slot and creating chaos in the team. A senior BCCI official criticized the CoA for its handling of the entire issue and said it wouldn’t come as a surprise if the CAC refuses to be a part of the selection process given how it was “over-ruled” in the Virat Kohli-Anil Kumble fallout last year.

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Talking about the same, a senior BCCI official said, “If CoA has decided already that CAC might not be interested, then blame it on how they were bypassed during Virat Kohli-Anil Kumble fiasco and subsequent appointment of Ravi Shastri. No wonder this issue has also not been handled professionally and CoA has been projected in very poor light.”