The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jaywant Lele said on Tuesday that the board has shortlisted former Australian captain Greg Chappell and former New Zealand opener John Wright as the two candidates for appointment of coach.

Talking to a news agency, Lele said "both Chappell, the former Australian skipper, and Wright, the former New Zealand captain, would reach Chennai on October 22 and meet board officials, including its president AC Muthiah, the next day (October 23).''

Lele said that the board had consulted the team on this issue and said "we have taken their views which are positive." On the need for a foreign coach to train the Indian side, Lele said "we have had Indian coaches like Sandeep Patil and Madan Lal in the past. We thought we will try foreign coaches also. Let us see how far it will be successful."

To a question on whether the contract will be depend on performance or will be for a fixed time, the board secretary said "All this depends on our discussions with them. We can't say anything at this stage." On the issue of the appointment of assistant coach, Lele said "not at this stage."

Earlier, the BCCI president AC Muthiah said that the board has its option open on the appointment of the Indian coach to fill the vacant post. Muthiah, talking to PTI on Tuesday, said that "The Board still has an open mind in the appointment of the coach." He added "We have called them for discussions with Board officials on October 23 at Chennai."

On the appointment of an assistant coach, Muthiah said "the Board is keen to have a former Indian Test player to be the assistant coach and is considering Roger Binny, Sandeep Patil and Krish Srikkanth for the same."

The raging issue of the appointment of coach followed the resignation of Kapil Dev. The board in turn appointed Anshuman Gaekwad on an interim basis for the ICC Knock-out tournament and Sharjah triangular. The new coach is likely to take over from the one-off Test match against Bangladesh in Dhaka starting on November 10.

© CricInfo