Former stumpers Dighe, Samant in race for Mumbai’s Ranji coach job

CIC chief Rajput

Former Mumbai Ranji coaches Sameer Dighe and Vinayak Samant lead the list of aspirants who have applied for the Mumbai head coach's job for the upcoming 2023-24 season. The list of applicants also includes former Mumbai bowling coaches, Pradeep Sunderam and Omkar Salvi, ex-Afghanistan batting coach Umesh Patwal, 2022-23 Mumbai fielding coach Atul Ranade and former Mumbai opener Vinayak Mane.

Ex-India wicketkeeper-batsman Dighe, 54, who represented the country in six Tests and 23 ODIs, was also head coach of the Tripura Ranji team.

Sunderam, 63, has previously also coached the Rajasthan and Goa Ranji teams. Patwal, who guided the Prithvi Shaw-led North Mumbai Panthers to the inaugural T20 Mumbai League title in 2019, is currently a head coach at the Tendulkar Middlesex Global Academy in Navi Mumbai. Salvi has also been a Mumbai bowling coach, while Ranade assisted head coach Amol Muzumdar in the last Ranji season. Mane currently guides the Parsee Gymkhana team whose batting line-up is spearheaded by World No. 1 T20I batsman Suryakumar Yadav.

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Meanwhile, it is learnt that there were 32 applicants for the five posts available in the Mumbai selection committee. Former Test pacer Raju Kulkarni and ex-India all-rounder Suru Nayak are frontrunners here. Former selectors Prasad Desai, Ghulam Parkar and Zulfiqar Parkar, ex-MCA Apex Council member Kiran Powar and former Mumbai batsman Bhavin Thakkar are some of the other prominent names in the list.

MCA's Cricket Improvement Committee, headed by Ex-India opener Lalchand Rajput and comprising ex-Mumbai batsman Sahil Kukreja and former India women's team bowler Preeti Dimri, will conduct interviews for these positions. The CIC will hold their first meeting today.