BCCI announce coaches for new teams for 2018-19 domestic season

The BCCI today announced coaches for the eight new teams which will be participating in the 2018-19 domestic season as part of providing them support with groundsmen, finance expert and coaching support this season.

Former Delhi coach KP Bhaskar is entrusted with the coaching role of Uttarakhand while Ashok Malhotra will be in charge of the Mizoram senior side with former Bengal pacer Shib Shankar Paul as the U-23 coach for the North-Eastern state.

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Saba Karim, the General Manager of Cricket Operations for the BCCI has prepared an elaborate blueprint for this year’s domestic cricket which will witness nine states being integrated into the first-class structure.

“We have addressed the issue of paucity of match referees, umpires and scorers. We will have 12 new match referees and 14 new umpires this season to meet with the growing demand. This time the evaluation process will change. The umpires will evaluate match referees and the process will be monitored by cricket operations team,” said Karim.

The nine states will be provided with four administrative staff  for finance, cricket operations and logistics (two) with four ground staffs. The grounds in the North East are expected to get ready by September 7.

Arunachal Pradesh will have their home base in Assam’s Goalpara, Salmara and Mangaldoi (for all their teams). Mizoram will be playing their home matches at Jorhat and Dibrugarh in Assam, while Sikkim will have two home grounds in Bhuvneshwar (KIIT and Vikas School). Manipur’s second home will be Surat while they have one proper ground in Imphal.

“Apart from this each state has been provided with six coaches, six physios and six trainers for their age group teams as well as women’s team. It’s a one season tripartite agreement between the individual, state association and BCCI. It’s for one season as we slowly want the states to be empowered,” said Karim.

“Some of the new teams like Bihar, Uttarakhand and Puducherry have been preparing very well and I am hopeful that they will do well. The North Eastern states also have some very fit boys. Yes, the skill part is being developed but you need to start somewhere. We need to give them chance expecting that they will become competitive,” he added.

List of coaches confirmed for new states:

Meghalaya: Senior Men: Sanath Kumar; U-23: Dhiraj Jadhav

Bihar: Senior Men: Subroto Banerjee; U-23: Ajay Ratra

Nagaland: Senior Men: Kanwaljeet Singh

Sikkim: Senior Men: Sanjeev Sharma U-23: PV Shashikanth

Uttarakhand: Senior Men: KP Bhaskar

Arunachal Pradesh: Gursharan Singh

Mizoram: Senior Men: Ashok Malhotra; U-23: Shib Shankar Paul

Puducherry: Senior Men: Aavishkar Salvi.