Virender Sehwag was acutely hurt after he was denied the Indian head coach position, says AN Sharma

Former India opener Virender Sehwag recently came up with some inside stories about the Indian head coach saga. The destructive right-hander claimed that head coach Ravi Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli ditched him in the process. According to Viru, he would not have applied for the job if he knew Shastri was in the fray. Sehwag also mentioned that he decided to throw his hat in the ring when Shastri assured him that the 55-year-old will not apply for the position.

Though Sehwag made took a U-turn after his comments and stated that they were made in jest, his childhood mentor and coach A.N Sharma thinks that Sehwag was acutely hurt after not bagging the job. Sharma also mentioned that he did not have a discussion on this with Sehwag as he did not want to dig the grave and hurt his emotions.

What Sharma had to say:

“Viru was deeply hurt on not getting the coach post.  Whatever he had in his mind have come out now. Otherwise why would he say so  three months after he was dumped ?”, Sharma, speaking exclusively over his mobile from Delhi, said.

“I had not discussed this topic with him in last three months. This is because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings more and hit a nerve”. he added.

It is a known fact that out of the three CAC members, two of them in the name of Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman was not in favor of Shastri. It was only Sachin Tendulkar who had a ‘soft corner’ for Shastri and the other two failed to make their opinion count said A.N Sharma.

“Sehwag did not get the job because Sachin Tendulkar asked Shastri to apply for the post. Shastri was reported to be not interested in the job and Saurav Ganguly was also not in his favour. Sachin had “soft corner” for Shastri. It was only later the other two members of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) (Ganguly and VVS Laxman) could not voice their opinion against Sachin’s wish and Viru’s application was thus dumped”, said Sharma.

“Sehwag was encouraged to apply for the post. He had an opportunity to be the coach of the national team but was very disappointed when the post didn’t come to him,” he added further.

Speaking about India’s recent success under Shastri, Sharma said that the results would have been no different if Sehwag became the head coach. “Had Sehwag been India coach, the results would have been same. Sri Lanka is a very weak team and India could have won 9-0 (three Tests, five ODIs’, and one T20) “easily”. he concluded.