MUMBAI: Abhishek Nayar may no longer be the assistant coach of the Indian team, but he’s already in the support staff of two teams. After he was named as the assistant coach of the IPL defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders recently, Nayar has been appointed as the mentor of Mumbai South Central Maratha Royals, owned by Royal Edge Sports & Entertainment (consortium of Kapil Sons Explosives LLP, Cutting Edge Events & Ranjit Singh Bindra), one of the two newly-auctioned teams in the T20 Mumbai League – Season 3, which is set to begin on May 26.
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Former Mumbai seamer Amit Dani will be the head coach of the team.
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Meanwhile, former India seamer and ex-India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey, currently the bowling coach of the Mumbai Indians, will be the mentor of ARCS Andheri. Former Mumbai left-arm spinner Rajesh Pawar will be the Andheri team’s assistant coach. Former India team masseur Ramesh Mane will be the team masseur, while ex-Mumbai strength and conditioning coach Amogh Pandit will be the trainer of the side.
Current Mumbai head coach Omkar Salvi is set to be the head coach of SoBo Mumbai Falcons, owned by Roadway Solutions India Infra Ltd.
Former Mumbai, Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Lions leg-spinner Pravin Tambe is the head coach of North Mumbai Panthers, while Tambe’s assistant coach is Yogesh Pawar. Former Mumbai seamer Atul Ranade, currently the assistant coach of Vidarbha, has been appointed as the head coach of Triumph Knights Mumbai North East – a team he coached in the first two seasons too, before the league was halted due to covid.
Tambe, who took 28 wickets in 33 matches in the IPL in which he debuted well into his 40s, played for the North Mumbai Panthers team when they won the championship when it was last held, in 2019, beating Sobo Supersonics in the final. On Saturday, the governing council of MCA held an ‘orientation’ with all the eight team owners and their support staff at the MCA Lounge.
“As the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), we are committed to promoting and empowering our local coaches and support staff, ensuring they receive greater opportunities to grow and contribute not only to Mumbai cricket but also to Indian cricket. By nurturing homegrown talent, we aim to strengthen the foundation of our cricketing ecosystem and create pathways for sustained excellence,” said Ajinkya Naik, President of Mumbai Cricket Association.
Meanwhile, once a sensation in the IPL, Paul Valthaty has been named as the Indian Cricketers Association representative in the governing council of the upcoming league. The 40-year-old former Mumbai and Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) cricketer was in August last year named head coach of a Minor League Cricket club, Seattle Thunderbolts, in the USA. Valthaty retired from domestic cricket in 2023.
Valthaty made an incredible impact in IPL 2011 for Punjab Kings, hitting the season’s first hundred — an unbeaten 120 against the Super Kings but failed to replicate that season’s success in the following years. He went on to score 463 runs in 14 matches in the 2011 IPL season, and played four first-class and five List-A matches.
The auction of the T20 Mumbai League, which is returning after a six-year hiatus, with the third edition will be held on May 7. 240 players will be up for sale in the auction. All the eight India players of Mumbai-India’s T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Ajinkya Rahane, Shivam Dube, Sarfaraz Khan, Tushar Deshpande and Prithvi Shaw will be icon players, who will be allotted to each team based on draw of lots. Each icon player will be allotted a fixed sum of Rs 20 lakh. The base price of a Ranji Trophy player will be Rs 10 lakhs, while the base price of other players will be Rs 2 lakhs. The auction purse for a team will be Rs 1 crore, with a maximum squad size of 18 players.
Each team needs to have four Under-19 players in their 18-man squad. The league will have eight owners, with two new team owners in Sobo Mumbai Falcons and the Mumbai South Central. The Roadway Solutions India Infra Ltd. secured the operating rights of Team Sobo Mumbai Falcons for Rs 82 crore, while Royal Edge Sports & Entertainment acquired the team representing Mumbai South Central region for Rs 57 crore.
