Former Indian cricketer Jatin Paranjape is of the opinion that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee should retain the current coaching staff, who played a pivotal role behind the scenes in helping Team India clinch the T20 World Cup 2024 triumph in Barbados.
Following India's T20 World Cup win, head coach Rahul Dravid and the rest of the coaching staff, including Vikram Rathour (batting coach) and Paras Mhambrey (bowling coach) stints came to an end. After a long-kept secret, the BCCI officially announced Gautam Gambhir as the new head coach of Team India on Tuesday.
However, after being appointed as the head coach, Gautam Gambhir demanded a change in the coaching staff as he recommended some names to the BCCI, including Ryan ten Doeschate , Abhishek Nayar, Vinay Kumar and Morne Morkel for coaching roles.
'What wrong has the support staff done? : Jatin Paranjape
Speaking to the Free Press Journal, Jatin Paranjape spoke about the trends of coaching bringing their own teams, a practice traditionally seen in football. He also finds tough to understand the need to change the current support staff, who played a significant role in helping India reach the ODI World Cup and WTC Finals last year, as well as in winning the T20 World Cup.
"Coaches coming with their own teams have become a tradition in football. Once the manager changes, he builds his own scouts and technical directors and they move around with six to eight people. Now, that has spilled over to cricket." CAC member said.
"At the end of the day whatever Gautam Gambhir is comfortable with, I find it slightly tough to understand how after you reached the 50-over ODI World Cup Final, we reached the WTC Final and won the T20 World Cup, what wrong has the support staff done who are incumbents?" he added.
The current coaching staff, which includes Vikram Rathour and Paras Mhambrey as batting and bowling coaches, respectively, was appointed when Rahul Dravid was selected as the head coach. The outgoing coaching team, led by Dravid, continued until the T20 World Cup 2024 after their contracts were extended after the ODI World Cup Final defeat last year.
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Jatin Paranjape feels BCCI will continue with current support staff
Jatin Paranjape said that changing the entire coaching staff just for the sake of change is not the right thing to do as the Paras Mhambarey and Vikram Rathour played their respective roles in all three finals of the ICC tournaments.
Former Indian cricketer feels that BCCI will continue with current support staff to see how Gautam Gambhir will gel with them.
"The change for the sake of change would be the wrong reason to do it. I don't have any visibility into the support staff—that's not the remit of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) as it's the remit of the selection committee. But what wrong have Paras Mhambrey and Vikram Rathour done in reaching every final of the ICC tournaments?" Paranjape said.
"These things will become clearer, and may be they will have same support staff for a while and see how Gautam Gambhir gels with them. Let's not forget that the current coaching staff at KKR has only been there for one year. It's not as if they have been with KKR for the last 10 years." he added.
Before being appointed as the head coach of Team India, Gautam Gambhir served as the mentor of the Lucknow Super Giants and the Kolkata Knight Riders. Ryan ten Doeschate, Abhishek Nayar, and Vinay Kumar worked alongside Gambhir to help KKR clinch their third IPL title this year.
