$1million-a-year: Ravi Shastri may become world's highest-paid cricket coach

Former Indian captain might be offered seven crore per year after the Bangladesh series by BCCI

Team director for India, Ravi Shastri, is being touted to become the highest paid cricket coach in the world if he accepts the role of the coach offered by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), reported Hindustan Times.

Former skipper will be the first Indian to become team India's coach after 2000 if he accepts seven-crore-a-year deal offered by the BCCI.

The search for a new coach to succeed Zimbabwean Duncan Fletcher was put to a halt after newly sworn in captain Virat Kohli said he wanted Shastri in the dressing room.

Read: Virat Kohli backs 'amazing' Ravis Shastri's appointment

Shastri was retained in the role of the team director for the Bangladesh tour after he was brought in to hold the team after a dismal England tour in 2014.

The “we will have another round of discussion after the tour of Bangladesh” line taken by Shastri and the board was in fact linked to his compensation package, having given up media commitments to take up the assignment, sources said.

Shastri already collected four crore rupees annually from the BCCI as TV commentator. If he is paid the aforementioned amount, he will become the first cricket coach to be paid $1 million.

Read: Shastri to coach India in Bangladesh

He himself showed his intent to take up the role before the one-off Test against Bangladesh when he said he could double up with three specialist coaches assisting him.

The board, source said, was planning to merge the role of team director and coach, appointing Shastri the head coach. Shastri will have a free run of team. On team’s performance, his word would be final. A plan to appoint a performance manager has been shelved, sources said.