Gary Kirsten has been tremendous coach/ man manager for Indian team but time has India to look beyond him. There is always a temptation to retain a successful coach but by end of the World Cup next year, he would been in the saddle for 3 years which is pretty much the shelf life for any coach. Teams can get stale and deteriorate if same coach continues beyond 3-4 years. Cases in point - India after World Cup 2003 when John Wright had completed 3+ years // England under Duncan Fletcher after 2005 Ashes (again 3+ years).
So who are the likely candidates to replace Gary Kirsten ? While I am a desi at heart, I am all for a foreign coach to continue good work of Gary. I would look for someone as low profile as Wright or Kirsten, someone like like Andy Flower. And why not someone like Steve Waugh to guide the next gen of Indian cricket? After all its a Usd 1 mio job and it would attract fair amount coaching talent.
Interesting times indeed for Indian cricket as they struggle to replace Anil Kumble. It may be tad easier to replace likes of Dravid, Laxman, Sachin, Sourav but finding Kumble's replacement is going to remain biggest challenge
