In a major development, Delhi Capitals (DC) have appointed Hemang Badani and Venugopal Rao as their new head coach and director of cricket, according to a report on Cricbuzz.
Delhi Capitals recently parted ways Ricky PontingHe was appointed the head coach of the franchise in 2018. He was off to a good start, leading the franchise to three straight playoff appearances in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
During his tenure, Delhi Capitals reached their first Indian Premier League final in the 2020 season. However, the Shreyas Iyer-led side suffered a heartbreaking loss to Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians, who won their 5th title.
Also, Sourav Ganguly was appointed as the Director of Cricket for Delhi Capitals (DC) in March 2023 and now it seems that he too has parted ways with the franchise as he has been appointed as the new director of cricket.
Join Hemang Badani, Venugopal Rao DC Support Staff
On Wednesday, October 16, Cricbuzz reported that Delhi Capitals have locked in their new head coach for the next two IPL seasons. Hemang Badani has been named as the head coach while Venugopal Rao will take over as the new director of cricket.
The duo are known for their great professionalism and understanding of the game and have been given the freedom to choose the rest of the coaching staff.
Notably, Hemang Badani and Venugopal Rao have been involved with ILT20 in the UAE and subsidiaries of the Major League Cricket (MLC) franchise in the US.
Dubai Capitals and Seattle Orcas in ILT20 and MLC are owned by Delhi Capitals co-owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi of GMR Group who will be in charge of Delhi Capitals in IPL 2025 and 2026 as in previous two years, JSW handled the affairs. .
Rishabh Shalwar To Be Stored By Delhi Capitals
Recently, Rishabh pants interestingly tweeting, “If I go to auction. Will I be sold or not and for how much??” This led to speculations about him leaving the Delhi Capital.
However, according to reports, the wicketkeeper-batsman is ready to continue with the franchise IPL. Another PTI report recently suggested that Delhi Capitals have decided to retain only three players.
The first player will be Rishabh Pant who will get INR 18 crore Akhar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav the next two will be hold and they will get INR 14 crore and INR 11 crore. Also, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Tristan Stubbs were reported to be the two players DC will use RTMs on.
Several Players Choose Not to Save
In another major development, several major players are opting not to be retained as they want to enter the mega auction to know their real market value.
The main reason for this move is the new RTM rule, which gives franchisees with the highest bid a final chance to raise their bid to the amount they want before the Right to Match option is exercised.
The IPL 2025 mega auction is expected to be held at the end of November and the BCCI is yet to finalize the venue. Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Singapore have been tossed around, but now Vienna is also being considered.
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