John Emburey, the former England off spinner who is the Middlesex director of cricket, has emerged as a surprise contender to become India coach before they start their three-Test series against England at Lord’s on July 19.

Emburey and Graham Ford, the former South Africa coach who has been the Kent director of cricket for the past two seasons, are the only candidates to have been invited to make a presentation to a special seven-man committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Madras on Saturday.

Dav Whatmore, who led Sri Lanka to World Cup triumph in 1996 and was in charge of Bangladesh during this year’s tournament, has been ruled out. He had been the favourite to take over from Greg Chappell, who resigned after India’s poor performance in the Caribbean.

Ford, who coached South Africa from 1999-2001, winning nine series out of 11 with the only defeats coming against Australia, was always in the running, but Emburey emerged only after a BCCI spokesman revealed that it had approached “another foreigner whose availability could not be ascertained”.

This led to speculation linking Arjuna Ranatunga, the former Sri Lanka captain, Duncan Fletcher, the former England head coach, and Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting, both former England captains, with the job, but it turned out that Emburey, was the man it wanted to interview.

Emburey, 54, played for England in 64 Tests from 1978-95, taking 147 wickets at 38 runs apiece. He captained England in two Tests against West Indies during the chaotic 1988 series but has not had a distinguished coaching career at Northamptonshire or Middlesex.