Sourav Ganguly’s role as director of cricket at Delhi Capitals is under a cloud as the IPL franchise is set to appoint Hemang Badani as head coach for the next two seasons, sources told The Telegraph.
Badani will be assisted by his former India teammate Venugopal Rao.
While most franchises are keen on having foreign coaches in their backroom staff, Delhi Capitals have restored their faith in the two Indian veterans who are known for their strong association in the domestic set-up.
The conscious decision to not go for big names was taken by the owners after the duo’s involvement with their subsidiaries in the other professional leagues came in for a lot
of praise.
Ricky Ponting, who had been head coach for seven seasons, had parted ways with Delhi Capitals in July. He has since taken over as Punjab Kings head coach.
Sourav, however, will continue as director of cricket in the Women’s Premier League and with Pretoria Capitals in the South Africa T20 league.
Delhi Capitals is currently run by Kiran Grandhi of GMR. According to the arrangement, the two owners — JSW, represented by Parth Jindal, and GMR — alternately run the franchise every two years.
The managing owner has the final say when it comes to picking the coaching staff while retention and auction strategies are planned jointly.
While the coaching staff has been finalised, Delhi Capitals are still awaiting some clarity before finalising their retentions.
Rishabh Pant’s cryptic post on X — “If I go to the auction, will I be sold or not and for how much ??” — a few days back had set the rumour mills abuzz.
The franchise though remains confident about confirming Pant’s retention before the October 31 deadline.
Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav are also certain to be retained. Jake-Fraser McGurk’s fate hasn’t been decided yet.
The auction is expected to take place next month.
SRH retentions
Sunrisers Hyderabad have finalised their retentions, it was learnt. Pat Cummins, Heinrich Klaasen, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy will be the chosen five.
