NEW DELHI, July 11, (AFP): Former captain Ravi Shastri was on Tuesday named the new head coach of India for a two-year period, ending weeks of speculation over the high-profile job after Anil Kumble’s dramatic exit.The Board of Control for Cricket in India also appointed ex-paceman Zaheer Khan as the bowling consultant and Rahul Dravid as batting consultant for overseas tours.“The term of the appointments will be till the World Cup 2019,” the BCCI said in a late night release.An advisory panel comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman “conducted the interviews and recommended these appointments in the best interest of the Indian Cricket”. Shastri, 55, edged out five high-profile names including batting great Virender Sehwag, Australia’s Tom Moody, Englishman Richard Pybus and former India manager Lalchand Rajput, who were interviewed in Mumbai on Monday.Zaheer, 38, who has no formal coaching experience, has been part of the Delhi Daredevils thinktank in recent Indian Premier League seasons.Dravid recently gave up his position as the Daredevils mentor, after accepting a two-year contract to coach India A and Under-19 teams and BCCI said his expertise “will be immensely helpful for youngsters”.Former test bowler Lonwabo Tsotsobe has been banned for eight years, taking to seven the number of South African players kicked out of the game for their part in a 2015 match-fixing scandal, Cricket South Africa said on Tuesday.The 33-year-old, who played in five tests and 61 one-day internationals, was charged in April with contriving to fix or improperly influence matches in the South Africa domestic Twenty20 Series and seeking to accept, or agreeing to accept, a bribe. Tsotsobe admitted one charge of contriving to fix a match and nine separate charges of failing to co-operate properly with various investigations.England batsman Alastair Cook is enjoying himself after stepping down as test captain, head coach Trevor Bayliss said after his team beat South Africa by 211 runs in the first match of the series.Cook resigned as test skipper in February after four and a half years in charge, in which he led his side in 59 tests and won two Ashes series. He scored 69 in the second innings against South Africa in his first match under new captain Joe Root.Bangladesh opening batsman Tamim Iqbal has left English county Essex after just one match for personal reasons the club revealed on Tuesday. The 28-year-old — Bangladesh’s highest international run scorer with more than 10,000 to his name in all forms of the game — signed only last week for an eight game stint in the T20 Blast county competition. Tamim appeared in Sunday’s seven-wicket loss to Kent but on Tuesday Essex released a statement saying his stay was over.International cricket needs more context and support from administrators to stop players from choosing lucrative Twenty20 leagues over the traditional test format, former England captain Mike Brearley has said.Brearley cites the example of South African AB de Villiers, who is sitting out of the ongoing test series in England and is tipped to retire from tests this year to prolong his career in limited-overs cricket. “My view is that not everything that could be done to preserve and encourage international and especially test cricket has yet been done,” Brearley, the outgoing chairman of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) world cricket committee, wrote in a column for the Times.