Didn’t have ‘setting’ for coach’s job: Viru

New Delhi, Virender Sehwag today said he missed out on becoming the Indian team’s chief coach due to the lack of patronage from the powers that be in BCCI and will not apply for the position again.
Sehwag lost out to Ravi Shastri, who was touted as skipper Virat Kohli’s choice. Shastri’s appointment reportedly did not find favour with Sourav Ganguly, a member of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which was tasked with appointing the new coach.
“Dekhiye main coach isliye nahi ban paaya kyonki jo bhi coach chun rahe the unse mera koi setting nahin tha. (Look, I couldn’t become (India) coach because I didn’t have any setting with those who were in charge of appointing the coach),” Sehwag said during a TV chat show.
The other members of CAC are Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman. It’s intriguing to hear Sehwag say that he didn’t have a “setting” with his former India teammates Ganguly, Tendulkar and Laxman.
The swashbuckling former opener was in his element and claimed that he was misled by a section of BCCI into applying for the post.
“I never thought of coaching the Indian team. I was given an offer to coach the team. The acting BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary and GM (Game Development) MV Sridhar came to me and requested me to think about the offer. I took my time and then applied for the position,” Sehwag revealed.
In fact, he claimed that he had even consulted India captain Virat Kohli before applying.
“I also had a word with Virat Kohli, he asked me to go for it. It was only then that I applied. If you ask for my opinion, I would say that I was never interested. I thought since they are requesting me, I should help them. I never thought of applying on my own nor will I ever apply in future,” Sehwag replied when asked about the backdrop of his application.
Sehwag also said Shastri had initially told him that he would not apply for the post. Sehwag said that if he had known of Shastri’s intentions to apply, he himself would not have applied.
“When I was in England during the Champions Trophy, I had asked Ravi Shastri that why hasn’t he applied for the post? Shastri then told me that he will not repeat the mistake which he had already made once. If Ravi had applied earlier, then I don’t think there would have been any chance of me applying for the post. I would have never applied,” Sehwag said during the interview.