VVS Laxman joins bandwagon of cricket legends from Hyderabad
Hyderabad: The appointment of VVS Laxman as the new National Cricket Academy (NCA) Director has been welcomed by cricket experts. As BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said Laxman’s stature is beyond question and that is why the former Hyderabadi stylish batsman got the coveted post. Laxman has sacrificed financially (apart from being mentor of Sunrisers Hyderabad, […]
Hyderabad: The appointment of VVS Laxman as the new National Cricket Academy (NCA) Director has been welcomed by cricket experts.
As BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said Laxman’s stature is beyond question and that is why the former Hyderabadi stylish batsman got the coveted post.
Laxman has sacrificed financially (apart from being mentor of Sunrisers Hyderabad, he is a Star Sports analyst) and would shift to Bengaluru along with his family to take up the new role, Ganguly said.
Hailing from a city that has a rich cricketing legacy, the NCA assignment will be a new challenge to Laxman as he has to showcase his administrative and coaching skills.
In the past we had the late Ghulam Ahmed (Test off spinner) as secretary and vice president of BCCI, chairman of selectors, captain and manager of Indian team or N Shivlal Yadav as president of BCCI or late MV Sridhar as General Manager (cricket operations). Shivlal, the former Test off spinner, also donned the role of NCA chairman a few years ago.
Former Hyderabad off-spinner Kanwaljit Singh said it is a big honour for Laxman and also for Hyderabad. “He has rich cricket knowledge and his calm demeanour will help in his new role as NCA Director,’’ said Kanwaljit, who is himself the coach of the Nagaland team for three years.
The Hyderabad cricketers or administrators have occupied important posts in the capacity as selector, coach, manager or administrators assigned by the Indian Cricket Board. Late SM Hadi was the first from Hyderabad to get a big post when he was the manager of Indian cricket team in 1934 to England.
PR Man Singh was the successful manager of the 1983 Indian team that won the World Cup at Lord’s. Late ML Jaisimha was the manager during the Indian team’s tour to Sri Lanka in 1985–86 while late Ranga Reddy was the manager for the Indian tour of England. Shivlal and Arshad Ayub were managers of the Indian team tours to Australia.
MV Sridhar, who rose to the ranks of General Manager (Cricket Operations), was also manager of the Indian team during the West Indies tour in 2016. He was the man behind the organisation of the 2016 T20 World Cup in India. But his handling as media manager of the Indian team in the acrimonious tour of Australia in 2008-09, made infamous by the “monkeygate” scandal, was highly appreciated.
Former Test all-rounder Syed Abid Ali, now settled in the USA, did coaching stints for Andhra, who became champions of the South Zone team, and for the USA team.
MV Narasimha Rao, former Test all-rounder and captain of the victorious Hyderabad Ranji team in 1986-87, was coach of the Ireland team and part of the Ireland cricket board. Ramakrishan Sridhar, who recently relinquished his post, has the distinction of being the longest coach for the Indian team. Sridhar has a record of 300-odd number of matches (Test, ODI and T20) as fielding coach starting from 2014.
Interestingly, another Hyderabadi in TK Diliep, who had been part of the India A supporting staff for the last few years, succeeded Sridhar as Team India fielding coach a few days ago.
Recently, former left-arm Test spinner SL Venkatapathy was appointed as cricket consultant for the Oman cricket team. Raju, who is popularly known as Muscles in cricket circles, was part of the national selection committee in the past. He was also Asian Cricket Council and ICC cricket development coach.
Stylish batsman Mohammed Azharuddin, who is now the president of Hyderabad Cricket Association, has been India’s most successful captain. He led India in three one-day World Cups.
Apart from Kanwaljit, Abhijit Chatterjee is coach of the Nagaland under-19 team while Vivek Jaisimha is the coach of Assam under-23 team while his younger brother Vidyuth Jaisimha coached Thailand’s women’s team and qualified for the Doha Asian Games. Noel David was also the spin consultant for the BCCI.
Pragyan Ojha, the former Test left-arm spinner, is now the Indian Cricketers Association (ICA)’s players’ representative to the Indian Premier League Governing Council.
In women’s cricket, Purnima Rau rose to the highest rank as captain, coach and selector of the Indian team while GS Lakshmi became the first woman match referee of ICC. Hyderabad had the distinction of international umpires in VK Ramaswamy, I Shivram and Shamsuddin. A Nandakishore, former Ranji captain, was in the IPL panel of umpires.
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