Gandhi Delhi coach, Robin Jr chief selector as DDCA doles out appointments

Former India batsman and national selector Devang Gandhi has been appointed as the chief coach of Delhi Ranji Trophy team while former India pacer Robin Singh Jr has been named as the chairperson of senior selection committee, which also sees the return of Mayank Sidhana, who was axed last season following a fall-out with former chief selector and India batsman Gagan Khoda.

The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) has appointed as many as 90 people as selectors, officials, coaching and support staff across its nine teams, and in the newly-introduced High Performance Group. This is being called an unprecedented number of appointments.

Gandhi will be assisted by V Arvind as assistant coach – bowling, Bantu Singh as assistant coach – batting and Punit Bisht as assistant coach – fielding.

Sowmik Chatterjee has joined Sidhana and Robin Singh as the third member of the committee.

The chairperson of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), Nikhil Chopra or his nominee from either Surinder Khanna or woman cricketer Anjali Sharma shall be the observer of the selection committee meetings.

According to the order issued by DDCA regarding appointments, former Delhi wicketkeeper Mohan Chaturvedi has been named as the chairperson of the junior men’s selection committee, which will pick Delhi teams for Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s under-16 and under-19 tournaments. Chaturvedi will also oversee the selection of the under-14 team.

Pankaj Singh retains his place as the chief coach of men’s under-23 team.

The chief coach of the under-19 team is Jaswant Rai, who has trained India pacer Arshdeep Singh and the coach of the under-16 team is former Delhi all-rounder Kuldeep Rawat.

Another ex-Delhi player Pradeep Chawla is the coach of the under-14 team.

Women’s panels

As far as women’s panels are concerned, former India cricketer Amita Sharma is the chairperson of the senior women’s selection panel while Rajni Sharma is the chairperson of the junior women’s selection panel.

The chief coach for senior women’s team is Anju Jain while the coach of women’s under-23 team is Deepti Dhyani.

The chief coach for women’s under-19 team is Mahesh Sharma and for women’s under-15 team is Swapandeep Singh.

High performance group

The DDCA has also introduced High Performance Group from this year.

“High Performance Group (HPG) shall be responsible for identification of players across age categories and train such players who have shown talent and commitment. The said HPG would also be responsible to coordinate with the above committees and train players recommended by them for developing future pool of talent. HPG shall be guided by the CAC and shall furnish fortnightly reports to us,” said the order, signed by DDCA president Arun Jaitley.

The decision over the selection of coaches, selectors and other staff was delayed due to non-availability of CAC head Chopra.

“The idea behind having a high performance group is to oversee preparation of the reserve players, who won’t be travelling with the team. Normally when we call up replacement players in case of injuries, we don’t know their form and fitness. So HPG will keep a track of the team as well as the team too,” said CAC chief Nikhil Chopra to Patriot.

The introduction of HPG and appointment of full staff for each of women’s teams has swelled the number to 90

List of appointees:

Senior Men’s Selection Committee (tasked to pick Ranji and under-23 teams): Robin Singh Jr (Chairperson), Sowmik Chatterjee (Member), Mayank Sidhana (Member), CAC chairperson/his nominee (Observer)

Senior Men’s coaching staff: Devang Gandhi (Chief Coach), V Arvind (Assistant Coach – Bowling), Bantu Singh (Assistant Coach – Batting), Punit Bisht (Assistant Coach – Fielding).

Trainer (senior men’s team): Yuvraj Salvi

Physio (senior men’s team): Zeeshan

Manager (senior men’s team): Sachin Gupta and Mahesh Bhati

Under-23 men’s coaching staff: Pankaj Singh (Chief Coach), Sohail Sharma (Assistant Coach), Rajiv Nayyar (Assistant Coach)

Trainer (under-23 men’s): Bhavanesh

Physio (under-23 men’s): Sumit Saxena

Manager (under-23 men’s): Rajiv Giri and Deepak Sharma

Logistics Manager (senior men’s including Ranji and under-23): Vivekanand Jha

Junior Men’s Selection Committee (tasked to pick under-19, under-16 and under-14 teams): Mohan Chaturvedi (Chairperson), JP Pandey (member), Abhishek Sharma (member), Chairperson CAC/his nominee (Observer)

Under-19 men’s coaching staff: Jaswant Rai (Chief Coach), Yogesh Nagar (Assistant Coach), Kunal Lal (Assistant Coach)

Trainer (under-19 men’s): Gaurav Kaushik

Physio (under-19 men’s): Nitish Thaman

Manager (under-19 men’s): Rajeev Chauhan and Vishal Tyagi

Under-16 men’s coaching staff: Kuldeep Rawat (Chief Coach), Rishit Saini (Assistant Coach) and Shashi Ranjan (Assistant Coach)

Trainer (under-16 men’s): Inderjit

Physio (under-16 men’s): Abhishek Sawant

Manager (under-16 men’s): Ravi Goswami, Gursatkar

Logistics Manager (junior men’s): Mohit Sharma

Under-14 men’s coaching staff: Pradeep Chawla (Chief Coach), Rajinder Singh (Assistant Coach) and Yogesh Sachdeva (Assistant Coach)

Trainer (under-14 men’s): Imran Ali

Manager (under-14 men’s): Sunny Gupta, Rahul Yadav

Senior women’s selection committee (tasked with picking senior and under-23 teams): Amita Sharma (Chairperson), Asha Rawat (Member), Sonu Sharma (Member), Chairperson CAC/his nominee (Observer)

Senior women’s coaching staff: Anju Jain (Chief Coach), Neha Tanwar (Assistant Coach), Tariq ur Rehman (Assistant Coach), Mandeep Kaur (Fielding Coach)

Trainer (senior women’s): Vipin Kumar

Physio (senior women’s): Surya Patel

Manager (senior women’s): Amanjeet Dhillon and Taruna Singh

Under-23 women’s coaching staff: Deepti Dhyani (Chief Coach), Minakshi Gupta, Neeru Gulia

Trainer (under-23 women’s): Vipin Rana

Physio (under-23 women’s): Shweta Dhawan

Manager (under-23 women’s): Meenakshi Bhaskar, Monica Juneja

Logistics Manager (senior women’s and under-23 women’s): Nitesh Kumar

Junior Women’s selection committee: Rajni Sharma (Chairperson), Rani Ojha (Member), Sushma Choudhary (Member), Chairperson CAC/his nominee (Observer)

Under-19 women’s coaching staff: Mahesh Sharma (Chief Coach), Kartar Nath (Assistant Coach – Batting), Vineeta (Fielding Coach)

Trainer (under-19 women’s): Satish Yadav

Physio (under-19 women’s): Pariksha