New coach for UP team a distant possibility

After UP’s unimpressive performance in the Ranji Trophy last year,there have been speculations that Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) could well be going with a new coach from the new season. However,the UPCA has given indications that there may be no such changes.

When contacted,Director UPCA Jyoti Bajpai said,“At the moment there is no talk of having a new coach. We try that our former Ranji Trophy players do the job. We believe that a talented Ranji Trophy player who has played 100 matches or so is competent enough to coach the players and former Ranji Trophy players are presently UP team’s coaches. While Gyanendra Pandey is senior team’s coach,Ashish Winston Zaidi who is UP senior team’s manager,also plays the role of the team’s bowling coach. We have former UP Ranji Trophy players as coaches for other age groups as well and we are satisfied with their work. At the moment there are no talks to bring in a new coach.”

Bajpai said that the names of former Indian cricketers like “Madan Lal or Mohinder Amarnath were being discussed but a lot depends on their availability as they may be busy with other things like appearing in sports programmes on TV etc.”

However,sources claimed that “a couple of months back there were talks of roping in a foreign coach in the form of former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes but things did not materialise.”

Well going by the fact that Team India cricketers like Suresh Raina,Praveen Kumar,RP Singh and Piyush Chawla all hail from UP,cricket lovers may not find this claim absolutely out of context.

The picture would be clear after the UPCA meet in September.