Duncan Fletcher succeeds Gary Kirsten as India coach

Former England coach Duncan Fletcher has been appointed the new coach of India, replacing Gary Kirsten, who didn't want to extend his contract after guiding India to World Cup victory in Mumbai this month.

However, Fletcher may not be part of India's nine-match tour of West Indies in June and July, said Narainswamy Srinivasan, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

Fletcher "has some prior commitments" but has signed a two-year contract and is expected to be available to lead India on tour in England from July.

Fletcher, 62, was shortlisted by the BCCI along with current England coach Andy Flower, another former Zimbabwe player. He will be the fourth foreign coach of India after New Zealander John Wright, Australian Greg Chappell and South African Kirsten.

Fletcher captained Zimbabwe at the 1983 World Cup but never played in tests.

After winning club titles with Western Province and Glamorgan, he became the first foreign coach of England in 1999, when it was ranked the worst test side. Within 18 months, he organized England to win a test series from West Indies for the first time in 31 years and beat Pakistan in a test in Pakistan for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Ashes series were lost in 2001 and 2002 but 16 years of Ashes misery were ended in 2005 on home soil when Australia were beaten 2-1, for which Fletcher was awarded an OBE.

England were whitewashed in Australia in 2006-07 and, in one-dayers, England hardly threatened under Fletcher, reaching the 2004 Champions Trophy final at the Oval but losing to West Indies.

Fletcher resigned after England crashed out of a second straight World Cup in 2007, and became a consultant, helping New Zealand and, most recently, South Africa at the World Cup.

The BCCI also re-signed Eric Simons as bowling coach and doubled the cash bonus for the World Cup-winning players, who will receive 20 million rupees (250,000) each.

Meanwhile, England selector Geoff Miller believes changes must be made to the international schedule to avoid a repeat of the gruelling fixture list the team faced this past winter.

England were ravaged by injuries during their three-and-a-half-month Ashes tour of Australia, which culminated in a marathon seven-match one-day series that was concluded just days before the start of the World Cup.

The fixture pile-up has already drawn criticism from England coach Andy Flower and star off-spinner Graeme Swann, who admitted the national side are forced to play "a lot of games that don't really matter".

Miller concedes the situation needs to be addressed.

He said: "We can't have a situation like we did in the winter and I agree entirely with what Andy Flower has said about it."