Mumbai, April 23 (IANS) Indian cricket board president Sharad Pawar Monday formed a seven-man panel to pick a new national coach to replace Greg Chappell.

The panel, to be headed by Pawar, will comprise three former India captains - Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and S. Venkataraghavan - besides board treasurer N. Srinivasan, joint secretary M.P. Pandove and secretary Niranjan Shah, who will double up as convenor.

'The committee is to meet at the earliest and convey its recommendations to the board,' the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said here.

While the BCCI in its statement mentioned no deadline by which it has to pick the coach, it has to be by June-end as the team is scheduled to leave for England for a full-fledged tour in the first week of July.

Gavaskar, Venkataraghavan and Shastri, who is going to Bangladesh with the Indian team as an interim cricket manager, were also part of a six-member committee that selected Australian Greg Chappell in May 2005 for a two-year term.

The then BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya headed the panel that chose Chappell from among four candidates in the fray.

West Indies' Desmond Haynes, Australia's Tom Moody and India's Mohinder Amarnath were the others who were interviewed by the panel May 20, 2005, the day the result was also announced.

Moody's name is again doing the rounds, besides Bangladesh coach Dav Whatmore, a former Australia Test player.

On the last occasion the BCCI took a very long time to select the coach. But this time, there is not much time as the important England tour is immediately after the Afro-Asia Cup, to be played in India in June.

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