The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to trim Team India’s support staff ahead of the tour of England, stressing the importance of accountability and performance.
Assistant coach Abhishek Nayar has been removed nine months into his tenure, while fielding coach T. Dilip and strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai, who have completed their three-year tenures, will not get contract renewals.
Sources told The Telegraph that the crackdown on the support staff was a result of the team’s performance in Australia, where they lost the Test series 1-3. The Champions Trophy triumph did very little to soothe frayed tempers within the BCCI and Nayar’s role had come under scrutiny following the batters’ failure in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The development is also an indication of head coach Gautam Gambhir’s growing influence in the team. There is speculation that Nayar was made a scapegoat following a clash of egos between two very senior and influential members within the set-up.
The BCCI’s review meeting, post the debacle Down Under, dealt extensively on the support staff’s role in co-ordination with Gambhir. The meeting was attended by
the BCCI brass, along with Rohit Sharma and chief selector Ajit Agarkar.
That Nayar’s days were numbered was an open secret and, as a back-up, the BCCI decided to include former Saurashtra batter Sitanshu Kotak, who had worked at the National Cricket Academy, as batting coach ahead of the white-ball home series against England.
“Everything is in a fluid situation and it will not be proper to talk about it now. We will announce it, including the central contracts, in the next two-three days,” BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia told The Telegraph on Thursday.
It is understood that the BCCI has roped in former Team India trainer Adrain Le Roux. The South African had worked under coach John Wright and captain Sourav Ganguly till the 2003 World Cup. He then worked with the South Africa men’s team before being a part of the IPL — first with Kolkata Knight Riders (2008-2019) and then Punjab Kings.
Nayar, Soham and Dilip have already been told that they are no longer associated with the team.
It is learnt that a senior member of the team insisted on retaining Dilip after Rahul Dravid, Paras Mhambrey and Vikram Rathour’s departure following last year’s T20 World Cup. In Dilip’s absence, Ryan ten Doeschate will perform the duties of the fielding coach.
It won’t come as a surprise if Nayar returns to the Kolkata Knight Riders, where he
had been a part of their academy in Mumbai. He had worked with Gambhir during their victorious campaign in 2024 before joining
Team India together.
Contracts soon
Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Reddy, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana and Shreyas Iyer are set to be included in the BCCI contracts, which will be announced shortly.
Rohit, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja will continue to be in the A-plus category.
The BCCI policy states, “athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of three Tests or eight ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis”.