Manoj Prabhakar sacked as Delhi coach

Manoj Prabhakar, former India all rounder who has taken 156 wickets in test cricket and 96 wickets in ODI’swas sacked as the Delhi coach late on Tuesday. DDCA chief selector Chetan Chauhan lashed out at him and accused him of creating a rift in the team. Assistant coach, Sanjeev Sharma, another ex Indian cricketer, will be the in charge of the team for time being.

The first evidence of rift was seen during the domestic T20 match on a green track in Punjab, when Delhi captain Mithun Manhas decided that his team will bat first despite having bowlers like Ashish Nehra and Ishant Sharma. This decision was against Manoj Prabhakar’s decision to bowl first. Punjab medium pacers had a deadly spell of 4-0-6-5, and Delhi could not even pile up 90 runs in 20 overs.

Delhi had failed to make to quater finals of last year’s Ranji Trophy. Manoj Prabhakar said that the result would be more or less same, as selectors and administrators did not include fresh faces and promote talent.

He also criticized Delhi’s young star Unmukt Chand and senior Delhi batsman Shikhar Dhawan. He had said that it was a very critical season for Unmukt, but unfortunate for him, he failed to touch a single delivery with a straight bat the whole season. As far as Shikhar Dhawan goes, he had said that Shikhar is a talented senior batsman but does not treasure his wicket.

He had also criticized the younger batsmen a lot, and said that his biggest concern was that the batsmen don’t seem to be willing to learn. They were not open to new suggestions and did not want to fine-tune their game. Everyone wanted to play his own game but that did not work in a team.

On further actions, DDCA secretary general SP Bansal said,

“I’ll sit down and have a chat with DDCA vice-president Chetan Chauhan. If Prabhakar decides to mend his ways and is prepared to work with the team then we might reinstate him. For the time being, Sanjeev (Sharma) is a capable replacement as coach.”

Edited by: Fergie’s Hairdryer