MELBOURNE, Dec 12: Former England great Tony Greig has criticised the BCCI’s decision to rope in Gary Kirsten as India’s cricket coach, saying the new-appointee would be nothing more than a puppet in the hands of senior players.

“It (Kirsten’s appointment) came as a bit of a surprise to me. It probably has something to do with employing someone who is likely to let the senior players have their way and definitely not someone who will impose himself on the team the way Greg Chappell did,” Greig was quoted as saying by The Herald Sun.

Greig felt the Indian board was perhaps wary of having an assertive person at the helm after having to deal with umpteenth controversies during Chappell’s tenure, which ended with India’s disastrous World Cup campaign earlier this year.

The former England player said he was surprised by the BCCI’s reluctance to go for more experienced coaches like Tom Moody, who has been with the Sri Lankan team, and John Buchanan, who guided Australia to back-to-back World Cup titles.

Greig said Kirsten would have a torrid time dealing with a lot of off-field issues while being with the Indian team and felt the internal “politics” within the board was one of the reasons why Indian contenders were overlooked for the job.—Agencies