KP Bhaskar named Delhi chief coach; Dahiya becomes U-23 coach

New Delhi: Former Delhi middle-order batsman K Bhaskar Pillai or better known as KP Bhaskar has been named the chief coach of the Delhi Ranji Trophy team with former India medium pacer Amit Bhandari being retained as the bowling coach of the side.

But the twist in the tale was last year's senior team coach Vijay Dahiya, who appeared for the interview and has now been made the U-23 team's chief coach.

According to well-informed sources, Dahiya had lot of influential people backing him for retention but then he had to settle for the state's A team (U-23) coach's job. The senior selection committee will have former fast bowlers Atul Wassan and Robin Singh Junior along with off-spinner Nikhil Chopra.

Former left-arm spinner Maninder Singh is making a comeback in Delhi cricket as the chairman of the junior selection committee. Ashu Dani and Chetnya Nanda are the other two junior selectors.

Bhaskar, a Delhi stalwart of 80's pipped last year's coach Dahiya and former India off-spinner and Delhi Daredevils manager Ashish Kapoor to the top job.

While Dahiya had to make way for Delhi's non-performance in the last season's Ranji Trophy, Kapoor's lack of knowledge about Delhi cricket went against him. Kapoor had played all his first-class cricket for Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

Bhaskar in 95 first-class matches had scored 5443 runs with 18 hundreds while Bhandari had 314 wickets from 95 games. Bhaskar will be get a salary of Rs 22 lakh while Bhandari will be paid Rs 12 lakh. The selectors will be paid Rs 9 lakh for their services during the season.

U-19 side will be guided by Rajeev Vinayak with V Aravind as his assistant. Former batsman Pankaj Joshi will be the head coach of the U-16 side while Kuldeep Rawat will be the coach of the U-14 side.

All the appointments have been made by the committee picked by Delhi High Court appointed observer Justice Mukul Mudgal.